Idaho Says Rules to Protect Sage Grouse Violate Federal Land-Use Planning Laws

摘要

Idaho's governor and Legislature filed a brief detailing their arguments that new federal protections for greater sage grouse birds violated federal laws on environmental analysis and land management (Otter v. Jewell, D.D.C., No. 1:15-cv-1566, brief filed 2/26/16). In the Feb. 26 filing, Idaho Gov. C.L. Butch Otter (R) and the State Legislature sought to have the ambitious land-management regulations vacated or enjoined within Idaho, where the regulations issued in September 2015 could pose a threat to energy and infrastructure development, mining and ranching. The Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service failed to follow the procedural steps of the National Environmental Policy Act and did not coordinate with states as required by the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA), the plaintiffs told the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in a brief filed in support of a motion for summary judgment.