Optimus Steel, LLC v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

A steel mill owner agreed to dismiss with prejudice its claims that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act when it reauthorized and reissued Nationwide Permit 12 (NWP-12) and approved a gas pipeline over the plaintiff’s property under NWP-12. The complaint’s allegations included that the Corps failed to analyze NWP-12’s climate change impacts. In October, the federal district court for the Eastern District of Texas denied the plaintiff’s request for a preliminary injunction.

The federal district court for the Eastern District of Texas denied a steel mill owner’s motion for a preliminary injunction barring construction of a gas pipeline that will cross the plaintiff’s property. The owner asserted that the U.S. Corps of Engineers violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act by reauthorizing and reissuing Nationwide Permit 12 (NWP-12) and by approving the pipeline under NWP-12. The court found that the steel mill owner was unlikely to succeed on the merits because it did not have standing under NEPA or the Endangered Species Act and its Clean Water Act claim failed. (The steel mill owner’s allegations in support of its NEPA claim included that the Corps failed to adequately analyze NWP-12’s climate change impacts including potential increased lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions.) The court also found that the plaintiff did not show irreparable harm or that the balance of equities or public interest weighed in its favor.