Rocky Mountain Wild v. Bernhardt

Environmental groups voluntarily dismissed their appeal of a December 2020 decision by a federal district court in Utah that rejected, in part, the groups’ challenge to U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) decisions to issue 59 oil and gas leases in northeast Utah. The district court found that BLM adequately considered greenhouse gas emissions and climate change impacts but remanded for additional analysis of alternatives. The federal defendants previously withdrew their appeal of the district court’s decision.

Challenge to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s decisions to issue 59 oil and gas leases covering 61,910.92 acres in northeast Utah.

After the federal defendants-appellants abandoned their appeal of a December 2020 District of Utah decision remanding a case challenging the issuance of oil and gas leases in the Uinta Basin, the conservation groups’ appeal of the district court decision is still pending, with the opening brief due on July 12, 2021. The Tenth Circuit directed the conservation groups “to address with specificity … whether this court has jurisdiction over their appeal.”