Description: Challenge to failure to update environmental review of federal coal management program.
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Western Organization of Resource Councils v. Jewell
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 06/19/2018 Opinion Download Dismissal affirmed. D.C. Circuit Said NEPA Did Not Require Updated Review of Coal Leasing Program. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed dismissal of a lawsuit seeking to compel an update of the programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS) for the federal coal leasing program. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) completed the PEIS in 1979; plaintiffs argued that BLM was required to update the environmental review due to the availability of tens of thousands of scientific studies on climate change and coal combustion’s contributions to climate change. The D.C. Circuit held that the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) did not require BLM to update the environmental review because the relevant “major Federal action” (establishment of the federal coal program) was completed in 1979 and no new action had been proposed. The D.C. Circuit said the plaintiffs raised “a compelling argument” that BLM “should now revisit the issue” of climate change and “adopt a new program or supplement its PEIS analysis,” but concluded that the plaintiffs would have to pursue other avenues to raise this claim—either via a rulemaking petition or through challenges to specific licensing decisions (which “might challenge any attempt by BLM to rely on (or tier to) the 1979 PEIS on the ground that it is too outdated to support new federal action”). The D.C. Circuit also rejected the plaintiffs’ contention that statements in the 1979 regulatory materials created an obligation for BLM to update the PEIS even if NEPA did not require it. The D.C. Circuit said that while the statements “might have created a binding duty … at one point,” BLM’s amendments to the coal leasing rules in 1982 freed it from any supplementation duty beyond that imposed by NEPA. 09/15/2017 Brief Download Initial brief filed by appellants. 05/26/2017 Motion Download Unopposed motion to end abeyance and establish briefing schedule. Conservation Groups Sought to Restart Appeal of Dismissal of Challenge to Federal Coal Leasing Program. Western Organization of Resource Councils and Friends of the Earth asked the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to reactivate their appeal of a district court August 2015 decision dismissing their action alleging that federal agencies failed to conduct an adequate analysis of the environmental effects—including climate change-related effects—of the federal coal leasing program. In January 2016, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell directed the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to prepare a programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS) and paused issuance of new coal leases until the PEIS was completed. In June 2016, the D.C. Circuit granted a joint request by the two conservation groups and the federal defendants to hold the groups’ appeal in abeyance while the PEIS was prepared. On March 29, 2017, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke revoked Secretary Jewell’s order. The conservation groups said that Secretary Zinke’s action restored the federal coal leasing program to its status at the time of the district court decision and their noticing of the appeal. They therefore asked the D.C. Circuit to end the abeyance, establish a briefing schedule, and calendar the case for oral argument. 10/27/2015 Notice of Appeal Notice of appeal filed. Environmental Organizations Appealed Dismissal of Case That Sought Updated NEPA Review for Coal Management Program. Western Organization of Resource Council and Friends of the Earth filed a notice of appeal in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on October 27, 2015, two months after the district court for the District of Columbia dismissed their lawsuit that sought to compel an updated environmental review for the federal coal management program. The district court concluded that it lacked authority to require supplemental review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) because there was no ongoing major federal action. -
Western Organization of Resource Councils v. Jewell
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 08/27/2015 Memorandum Opinion Download Memorandum opinion issued. Effort to Compel New Review of Federal Coal Leasing Program to Consider Climate Change and Other Impacts Does Not Survive Motion to Dismiss. The federal district court for the District of Columbia dismissed the action. The court determined that it had no authority to compel BLM to supplement its 1979 review because there was no ongoing major federal action that could trigger supplemental review. The court said any coal leasing decisions “are made pursuant to a pre-approved and EIS-supported program." 11/24/2014 Complaint Download Complaint filed. Two organizations brought a lawsuit against the Secretary of the Interior and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) challenging the failure to update the environmental review of the federal coal management program to consider the climate change impact of greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the program. The organizations—Western Organization of Resource Councils and Friends of the Earth—alleged that BLM had not comprehensively analyzed the environmental impacts of the program since 1979, and that the 1979 analysis “only briefly discussed the then-nascent science of the effects of greenhouse gas emissions and the federal coal management program’s emissions.” The organizations asked the federal district court for the District of Columbia to declare defendants in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA); to order an analysis of the impacts of coal leasing under the federal coal management program on climate change and analyze alternative policies to reduce such impacts, and to enjoin defendants from considering applications for or issuing new coal leases or modifications of existing leases until defendants comply with NEPA.