Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment v. Bureau of Indian Affairs

Environmental groups filed a lawsuit against federal defendants in the federal district court for the District of Arizona challenging expanded coal strip-mining operations at the Navajo Mine and extended coal combustion at the Four Corners Power Plant. The facilities are located in New Mexico and Arizona, including on tribal lands. The groups challenged a Biological Opinion (BiOp) prepared pursuant to the Endangered Species Act that concluded that operations at the mine and power plant would neither jeopardize the survival and recovery of, nor adversely modify designated critical habitat of, two endangered species of fish. The groups’ allegations included that the BiOp’s analysis of cumulative effects failed entirely to address evidence of significant impacts to the fishes’ habitat from climate change. The groups also challenged compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act. They alleged that the final environmental impact statement rejected alternatives such as conversion to natural gas that were technically and economically feasible and that would have greatly reduced greenhouse gas emissions at the power plant, which the complaint said was one of the largest domestic sources of greenhouse gas emissions.

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The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit challenging federal agency actions that reauthorized coal mining activities on land reserved to the Navajo Nation. The Ninth Circuit agreed with the district court that the Navajo Transitional Energy Company (NTEC)—a corporation wholly owned by the Navajo Nation and the owner of the coal mine—was a required party that could not be joined due to tribal sovereign immunity. The Ninth Circuit further concluded that the district court had not abused its discretion in determining that the lawsuit could not proceed without NTEC.