High Country Conservation Advocates v. U.S. Forest Service

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The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals granted environmental groups’ emergency motion for an injunction barring a coal company “from imminently bulldozing additional drilling pads” and “drilling methane ventilation boreholes in preparation for coal mining in the Sunset Roadless Area” in Colorado. The Tenth Circuit ordered the injunction to remain in place pending consideration of the environmental groups’ appeal of a district court order that declined to vacate mining lease modifications that authorized road construction in the Sunset Roadless Area. Although the Tenth Circuit vacated an exception to the Colorado Roadless Rule in March 2020, the district court concluded that it could not enjoin the coal companies’ activities because all challenges to the mining lease modifications had been resolved in the federal defendants’ favor.

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To facilitate its consideration of the plaintiffs-appellants' emergency motion for an injunction pending appeal of the district court declining to enjoin the coal company from road-building activities, the Tenth Circuit on October 7 entered a temporary injunction enjoining bulldozing additional drilling pads, drilling methane ventilation boreholes, and engaging in further surface disturbance in preparation for coal mining in the Sunset Roadless Area.

The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a district court that the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) did not have to conduct a detailed study of a “Methane Flaring Alternative” in an environmental impact statement (EIS) for coal lease modifications. The Tenth Circuit concluded that the agencies had taken a sufficiently hard look at the alternative, given the lack of information available at the time concerning flaring’s feasibility and impacts and given uncertainty regarding whether the Mine Safety and Health Administration would approve methane flaring at an active coal mine. But the appellate court held that in its EIS for a Colorado Roadless Rule exception, the Forest Service arbitrarily and capriciously excluded an alternative that would foreclose coal mining in one area where there were no active mines. The court therefore vacated the entire exception.

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