NEPA
Public Lands Watch: Izembek National Wildlife Refuge
Interior Department proposes to authorize road through wildlife refuge in Alaska
Tom Schumann authored this blog post. News outlets report that the Interior Department, reversing a decision made under President Obama, has agreed to a land exchange with an Alaska Native village that would allow construction of a road across a national wildlife refuge that provides important habitat for migratory birds, bears, caribou, and other species. …
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CONTINUE READINGPublic Lands Watch: Resilient Federal Forests Act
Bill to reduce environmental protections for timber management on federal lands passes House
The Resilient Federal Forests Act (RFFA), H.R. 2936—which would curb environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for a variety of forest management activities on National Forest and BLM lands—passed the House November 1. (We previously wrote about a version of this bill in committee here.) NEPA requires agencies to consider whether proposed …
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CONTINUE READINGRyan Zinke’s Troubling Remarks Undercut Dept. of Interior’s Core Mission
Comments to Oil Trade Association Attack Agency Staff, Dismiss Environmental Safeguards
At a recent meeting of the American Petroleum Institute (the national oil company trade association), Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke made clear some of his plans for the Department of the Interior. According to AP reporting, he called almost 1/3 of employees disloyal, said he plans to speed up oil and logging permits, and revealed a …
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CONTINUE READINGNews Flash: 10th Cir. Rebukes Government Over Coal Leases
Today’s important ruling on standing, public lands, and climate change
In an important ruling this morning, the Tenth Circuit rejected the government’s assertion that it could ignore carbon emissions tied to renewing coal leases. In WildEarth Guardians v. BLM, the court also rejected the mining company’s attack on the standing of environmental groups to raise this claim.The mines in question are in the Powder River …
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CONTINUE READINGThe ostrich administration
Ostriches actually don’t hide their heads in the sand, but the Trump administration sure wants to
It’s a myth (of course) that ostriches hide their heads in the sand when they’re afraid. Hiding one’s head is about the worst possible way to react to danger: it won’t make a threat go away, but it will make it awfully difficult to respond effectively. Ostriches are not that stupid. (They apparently do sometimes …
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CONTINUE READINGPublic Lands Watch: HR 218
Bill would authorize road through wilderness in Alaska national wildlife refuge
On July 20th the House passed H.R. 218 (248-179). The bill was then sent to the Senate where it was referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. The King Cove Road Land Exchange Act would transfer 206 acres of federal land—including 131 acres in the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge—to the state of Alaska …
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CONTINUE READINGPublic Lands Watch: HR 2936
Resilient Federal Forests Act would reduce or eliminate environmental protections for logging projects on National Forests
The House Natural Resources Committee passed H.R. 2936, the “Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2017,” out of committee on June 27th and the bill is now waiting in the House for debate. The bill would expedite National Environment Policy Act (NEPA) review for U.S. Forest Service projects in order to improve forest management on federal …
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CONTINUE READINGTrump’s Executive Order: Bad Policy and More Uncertainty
President Trump’s Executive Order on climate policy is an invitation to bad policymaking and legal uncertainty. The big-ticket item targeted by the Order, of course, is the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan and related rules on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. The EO has limited immediate legal impact: none of the major rules can …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Ninth Circuit’s Top Environmental Law Decisions of 2016
Climate Change, Endangered Species Act, NEPA, Constitutional Challenges Dominate Court of Appeals’ Docket
In 2016, at least, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit was the most important and influential court in the nation when it comes to environmental law. That’s true for two reasons: first, the U.S. Supreme Court only issued one significant environmental law decision last year, in U.S. Army Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes …
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CONTINUE READINGOf Pipelines, Protests, and General Permits
A fight in North Dakota reveals problems in how we permit and review large infrastructure projects
Native American tribes and environmental groups are currently protesting the completion of an oil pipeline in North Dakota. The pipeline would travel beneath the Missouri River. Tribes and environmentalists are fighting the pipeline both through litigation and also through direct action (occupying the site where the construction to complete the pipeline beneath the river would …
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