Court Upholds Lease of Two Coal Tracts in Powder River Basin

摘要

A federal judge has ruled in favor of the Bureau of Land Management in an environmental group's challenge of the bureau's decision to lease two coal tracts in Wyoming's Powder River Basin (WildEarth Guardians v. Bureau of Land Mgmt., 2014 BL 89855, D.D.C., No. 1:11-CV-1481, 3/31/14). In a ruling entered March 31, Judge Richard J. Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted the BLM's motion for summary judgment and denied a simi-lar motion by WildEarth Guardians in the environmental group's challenge of the coal leases. WildEarth Guardians had alleged the BLM in July 2010 violated the National Environmental Policy Act and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) by failing to adequately consider the impacts on air quality and climate change resulting from the two leases.