Center for Biological Diversity v. Spellmon

The federal district court for the District of Montana transferred to the district court for the District of Columbia a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s reissuance in early 2021of Nationwide Permit (NWP) 12 (which covers certain activities associated with oil and gas pipelines). The case presented the question of whether the federal defendants had rectified a lack of compliance with the Endangered Species Act (ESA) that the Montana district court identified in an earlier case. In the earlier case, the plaintiffs challenged the 2017 issuance of NWP 12, which would have permitted the Keystone XL pipeline, a project that the court said “posed a potential impact to ESA species in the State of Montana.” In the instant case, the court said the plaintiffs identified only one project that purported to use NWP 12 and that allegedly harmed their interests, but that the plaintiffs had identified no ESA-protected species or critical habitat in the area of that project. The court therefore found that no substantial parts of the events or omissions giving rise to the ESA claim had occurred in the District of Montana. The court further found that the only plaintiff that resided in Montana lacked standing to bring an ESA claim.

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