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The Climate Litigation Database

Sierra Club v. United States Department of State

Geography
🇺🇸 United States / California
Year
2009
Document Type
Litigation
Part of
Sierra Club v. Clinton

About this case

Filing year
2009
Status
Order issued granting defendant's motion to transfer venue and transferring action to District of Minnesota.
Geography
🇺🇸 United States → California
Docket number
09-cv-04086
Court/admin entity
United States → United States Federal Courts → United States District Court for the Northern District of California (N.D. Cal.)
Case category
Federal Statutory Claims (US) → NEPA (US)
Principal law
United States → National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
At issue
Challenge to cross-border pipeline that would bring oil from Canadian tar sands to the U.S.

Documents

Filing Date
Document
Type
Search results
09/23/2009
Order issued granting defendant's motion to transfer venue and transferring action to District of Minnesota.
On September 23, 2009, the district court ruled on a motion to transfer venue to Minnesota. The court granted the motion, holding that most of the plaintiffs did not reside in California, the decisions were made outside of California and the district had little interest in the subject matter. The court held that the majority of activities underlying the lawsuit took place in Minnesota.
Decision
–
09/03/2009
Complaint filed.
Sierra Club and other groups filed a lawsuit seeking to stop construction of a cross-border pipeline that would bring large volumes of oil from Canadian tar sands into the United States for refining and marketing. The plaintiffs alleged that the State Department’s EIS did not adequately consider the environmental impact of tar sands production. According to the plaintiffs, such production accounts for three times the amount of GHGs as normal production. 
Complaint
–
–
–
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Summary

Challenge to cross-border pipeline that would bring oil from Canadian tar sands to the U.S.