Swomley v. Schroyer

The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) claims against the U.S. Forest Service’s approval of a timber project in the White River National Forest. The Tenth Circuit found that dismissal of claims that the Forest Service failed to adequately consider the project’s climate change impacts was warranted because the petitioners failed to cite the administrative record—they instead relied on extra-record materials including advocacy group websites and Wikipedia articles about wildfires. The Tenth Circuit also rejected claims that an environmental impact statement was required either because the failure to consider potential climate impacts was controversial (or the project itself was controversial) or because the project left “considerable uncertainty” about the project’s impacts, including effects on climate change.