WildEarth Guardians v. Bernhardt

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The federal district court for the District of Montana found flaws in an updated environmental assessment for a mining plan modification that extended the life of the Spring Creek Mine, a surface coal mine in Montana. In <a href="https://climatecasechart.com/case/wildearth-guardians-v-u-s-office-of-surface-mining-reclamation-and-enforcement/">earlier litigation</a> challenging the same mining plan modification, the court found procedural and substantive violations of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). In the instant case, the court agreed with a magistrate judge’s findings that the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) failed to take a hard look at the impacts of coal transportation, failed to adequately consider the effects of downstream non-greenhouse gas emissions, and failed to quantify costs associated with greenhouse gas emissions even though OSM quantified the mine expansion’s socioeconomic benefits. Like the magistrate judge, the district court rejected claims that OSM improperly segmented its analysis and ignored cumulative impacts of the entire Spring Creek Mine. The court ordered OSM to prepare corrective NEPA analysis and deferred vacatur of mining plan approval for 240 days for preparation of the analysis.

After defendant-intervenor Spring Creek Coal, LLC filed for bankruptcy, the court stayed the case.

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A federal magistrate judge in the District of Montana recommended that the Office of Surface Mining (OSM) be required to conduct new National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis for a mining plan modification that would permit expansion of a surface coal mine in southern Montana. In a previous proceeding, the district court found that the initial NEPA review for the modification was insufficient and remanded for additional review. In the new lawsuit, the magistrate judge found that the updated environmental assessment (EA) and finding of no significant impact still violated NEPA. As an initial matter, the magistrate judge concluded that an environmental group that was not a party to the previous litigation had standing and that res judicata therefore did not bar new arguments raised in the new lawsuit—including an argument that OSM failed to apply the social cost of carbon protocol in examining greenhouse gas impacts. On the merits, the magistrate judge agreed with the plaintiffs that the defendants failed to take a hard look at the impacts of coal transportation and the non-greenhouse gas effects of coal combustion. The magistrate also agreed with the plaintiffs that since OSM quantified the mine expansion’s economic benefits, it was also required to quantify the costs associated with greenhouse gas emissions or provide a non-arbitrary reason for not doing so. The magistrate then found that the reasons given for not using the social cost of carbon tool as a means to quantify the costs of greenhouse gas emissions were arbitrary. The EA had stated that there was not a consensus on what fraction of the social cost of carbon should be assigned to a coal producer; that it was not certain that greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced in the absence of the mine’s expansion since power plants have alternative sources of coal; and that there were uncertainties regarding the “specific and accurate” social cost of carbon for the proposed action. The magistrate found that the decision not to prepare an environmental impact statement was arbitrary and capricious, but rejected claims that the defendants improperly piecemealed their NEPA analysis or that the Office of Surface Mining arbitrarily failed to consider the validity of the underlying lease. Regarding remedy, the magistrate found that concerns regarding the detrimental impacts of vacating the approval of the mining plan modification remained valid and therefore recommended that vacatur be deferred to allow the defendants time to correct the NEPA violations.