The federal district court for the Southern District of Illinois rejected claims by National Wildlife Federation and other environmental groups that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers failed to comply with NEPA and other statutes when the Corps approved the 2017 Regulating Works Project, which involves activities to maintain a navigation channel in the Middle Mississippi River. The court’s decision did not mention the plaintiffs’ climate change-specific arguments, which included that the final supplemental EIS failed to evaluate the project’s impacts in conjunction with climate change on the Middle Mississippi River’s “vital side channels.” The court concluded, however, that the Corps took a hard look at the science of whether the project would cause increased flooding and that the plaintiffs’ allegations concerning this issue and NEPA violations were “unpersuasive.” The court also found that the Corps did not violate the Water Resources Development Act, the Fish & Wildlife Coordination Act, or the 1927 Rivers & Harbors Act.

Lawsuit asserting that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers failed to conduct an adequate environmental review for activities intended to maintain a nine-foot deep navigation channel in the Middle Mississippi River Reach of the Mississippi River.

National Wildlife Federation v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

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Illinois Federal Court Said Corps of Engineers Complied with NEPA and Other Federal Laws for Middle Mississippi River Project

Filed

United States of America

Illinois

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives