WildEarth Guardians v. Bernhardt

WildEarth Guardians filed an appeal in the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals of the District of New Mexico’s August 2020 decision rejecting the bulk of WildEarth Guardian’s challenge to three leases for oil and gas development in southeastern New Mexico. The district court upheld, among other things, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s analysis of cumulative climate change impacts and found that use of the Social Cost of Carbon was not required.

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The federal district court for the District of New Mexico found that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review of three leases for oil and gas development across 68,232 acres in southeastern New Mexico was adequate. First, the court concluded that BLM satisfied NEPA’s requirements for analysis of the leases’ cumulative climate change effects by placing the leases in a regional and national context, considering other development in the region, and assessing (in incorporated reports) “the global impact of its leases.” The court found that the conclusion that the leases’ impact was not significant was not arbitrary and capricious. Second, the court said BLM was not required to apply the Social Cost of Carbon protocol. In addition, the court found that BLM’s consideration of air quality impacts and water quantity and quality impacts was sufficient. The court also found that BLM reasonably determined that environmental impact statements were not necessary. Regarding the NEPA regulations’ inclusion of whether an action is “highly controversial” as a factor for significance, the court recognized “that climate change can elicit strong reactions.” The court noted, however, “that nothing in NEPA or its accompanying regulations mandates certain studies to account for this global problem. What should not be controversial is the Court’s role in holding agencies accountable to congressional mandates. If Congress requires BLM to perform specific climate change-based studies, then the Court will uphold them. That time has not yet arrived. At present, BLM states that extrapolating site-specific leasing emissions onto global climate models is too uncertain. Instead, it places emissions in the context of the locality and region. Such analysis meets NEPA’s requirements and is not controversial despite the charged nature of the topic.” The court denied the plaintiff’s request to declare BLM’s leasing process guidance unlawful but enjoined subsequent leases that did not allow for public participation, per the guidance.