Description: Challenge to federal coal lease in Utah.
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WildEarth Guardians v. Zinke
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 07/08/2019 Memorandum Decision Download Motion to add documents to the administrative record and for limited discovery granted in part and denied in part. Federal Court Declined to Add Climate Change Documents to Record in Coal Lease Challenge. The federal district court for the District of Utah declined to add 14 documents related to climate change to the administrative record in a challenge to a federal coal lease. The plaintiffs had argued that the documents should be added to assist the court in determining whether significant new information about climate change arose after the environmental impact statement (EIS) was prepared in 2002 that would require a supplemental EIS. The court said the federal agencies had not ignored the issue of climate change in making their decision to issue the lease and therefore found no clear deficiency in the record. The court also found that the plaintiffs failed to show that the agency actions could not be properly reviewed without the additional documents. The court did allow the addition of other documents to the record and also found that discovery would be unnecessary. 09/11/2015 Petition for Review Download Petition for review filed.