Friends of Cedar Mesa v. U.S. Department of the Interior

After the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) suspended oil and gas leases in southeastern Utah that were sold in March and December 2018 so that it could conduct additional environmental analysis, the federal district court for the District of Utah dismissed two consolidated lawsuits challenging the leases. The court found that the plaintiffs’ claims were moot because no leasing operations or ground-disturbing activity would occur during the suspensions and BLM would issue new leasing decisions arising from a different regulatory context. The court further found that the mootness exception for voluntary cessation of activity did not apply because the alleged violations could not reasonably be expected to start up again and events had “completely and irrevocably eradicated the effects of the alleged violations.”