Backcountry Against Dumps v. Jewell

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a district court ruling that upheld the United States Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) granting of a right-of-way on federal lands for a wind energy project in San Diego County. The court upheld BLM’s actions under NEPA, as well as under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act. The Ninth Circuit concluded, among other things, that BLM’s environmental impact statement (EIS) took a hard look at greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. The court found that the EIS’s “passing projection of potential emissions reductions, simply by virtue of the Project’s creation of a new source of renewable energy, is reasonable enough and does not mandate the provision of conclusive proof through additional evidence and analysis beyond that already provided in the EIS.” The court also deferred to BLM’s determination that estimation of greenhouse gas emissions from manufacture and transportation of equipment to the project area would be too speculative.