Groups sue feds over comment review on public land reviews
Carly Nairn
SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — Two environmental nonprofits sued the Bureau of Land Management, along with several other federal agencies, on Thursday, claiming the Trump administration removed a foundational policy of allowing Americans to comment on environmental reviews for industrial, logging, mining and drilling projects on public lands.
In the lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club in the Northern District of California federal court, the plaintiffs say public input on environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act is an essential part of the process when determining proposal approvals for construction, oil and gas lease sales and other projects.
“Trump is taking a wrecking ball to public lands so his industry cronies can make a quick buck, but we’re pushing back and demanding a voice for the American people,” Wendy Park, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement.
“The National Environmental Policy Act is what keeps the public in the loop and lets people speak up when destructive projects threaten our backyards. Cutting the public out locks big decisions away in bureaucratic backrooms. That’s bad news for our wildlife, our beautiful public lands and our democratic right to participate in government decisions,” she said.
The plaintiffs say in the complaint that for almost 50 years the Council on Environmental Quality and the U.S. Department of the Interior required agencies to keep the public involved through the preparation of an environmental review, a project’s proposal and an agency’s analysis, with the ability to warn the public and federal officials of missed impacts or to what degree communities may be effected and how resources should be conserved.
“The new rules allow agencies to approve mining, drilling, and logging without allowing communities to have a say in what happens in their own backyards,” Park said in an email.
“If there are sensitive resources or significant impacts the agency overlooked, the only recourse would be to file a costly and time-intensive administrative appeal or lawsuit. But by the time that’s resolved, the damage could already be done. Public participation is vital to making sure agencies look before they leap, so they can make better decisions that protect communities and wildlife,” she said.
The plaintiffs seek injunctive relief, asking the court for the Department of the Interior to develop and complete its public comment rules under the procedures of NEPA and CEQ and acknowledge the agencies violated the Administrative Procedures Act.
Recently, the plaintiffs say, the administration “unlawfully rushed its decision to discard public comment procedures that had been in place since the 1970s” and claimed it did not give a legitimate reason for curtailing public input.
Brian Hires, press secretary for the Bureau of Land Management, declined to comment on the pending litigation.
Along with the Bureau of Land Management, the plaintiffs name the Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, the Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service and the acting directors of each of those agencies as defendants in the complaint.
The plaintiffs cite an example of the public’s inability to review the environmental analysis for the proposed South Railroad gold mine project in Nevada until after it is approved, which may affect greater sage grouse habitat and water supplies in the Humboldt River Basin.
Another example the plaintiffs point to is that, after a supplemental analysis was deemed necessary by a federal court that found gaps in the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s environmental review of an oil and gas lease sale in Alaska’s Cook Inlet, the agency decided to advance the analysis without public comment.
“An oil spill in Cook Inlet would be devastating for the wildlife and coastal communities that depend on these rugged waters to thrive,” Cooper Freeman, Alaska director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement.
“Clearly the only voices this administration wants to hear from are the president’s industry buddies, not us locals trying to sound the alarm about these dangerous lease sales.”