Swomley v. Schroyer

The federal district court for the District of Colorado upheld the U.S. Forest Service’s approval of a timber project authorizing logging on 1,631 acres in the White River National Forest in Colorado. The court rejected three claims under the National Environmental Policy Act, including an argument that the Forest Service failed to consider foreseeable greenhouse gas emissions and the project’s indirect and cumulative effect on global warming. The court found that the petitioners did not show that emissions from the project—which the court characterized as a “relatively small timber and biomass project”—would likely result in a cumulatively significant impact. The court distinguished this case from other cases in which consideration of emissions was required, indicating that in those cases “the significance of emissions was often beyond doubt.”