Wyoming v. Burgum

The federal district court for the District of Wyoming granted a motion by the Northern Cheyenne Tribe and a number of environmental organizations to intervene to defend the Biden administration’s Resource Management Plan amendments that imposed a federal moratorium on new coal leasing in the Powder River Basin in eastern Montana and Wyoming. The court agreed with the proposed intervenors that their environmental and organizational concerns were “legally protectable” interests in the case, that disposition of the lawsuit would adversely affect their interests, and that the existing parties could not adequately protect the proposed intervenors’ interests. The court also concluded that the proposed intervenors did not have to demonstrate independent standing to intervene.

In a lawsuit filed in the federal district court for the District of Wyoming, the States of Wyoming and Montana challenged the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) 2024 Records of Decision and Approved Resource Management Plan Amendments for the Buffalo Field Office and Miles City Field Office that ended new federal coal leasing in the Powder River Basin. The states asserted that BLM violated the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA), including by elevating consideration of greenhouse gas emissions and climate chance above resource values expressly identified in the FLPMA. The complaint also asserted that BLM violated the National Environmental Policy Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, and the Mineral Leasing Act.