In a lawsuit challenging both the reissuance of Nationwide Permit (NWP) 12—which authorizes discharges of dredged or fill material associated with utility lines—and also the NWP 12’s application to the Keystone XL Pipeline, the federal district court for the District of Montana vacated NWP 12 pending completion of the consultation process under the Endangered Species Act. The court found that there was “resounding evidence” in the record that authorized discharges may affect endangered and threatened species and critical habitat and that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could not circumvent consultation requirements by relying either on project-level review or on a General Condition in NWP 12 that required non-federal permittees to submit a preconstruction notification to the Corps if a permittee believed an activity might affect listed species or critical habitat. The court said that having remanded to the Corps for consultation under the Endangered Species Act, it was not necessary to determine whether the Corps “made a fully informed and well-considered decision” under NEPA and the Clean Water Act. The court therefore did not address the plaintiffs’ arguments under those statutes, including the argument that the Corps should have considered indirect and cumulative effects of authorized projects’ lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions. The court said it anticipated that the Corps would conduct additional environmental analyses based on the consultation findings.

Challenge to U.S Army Corps of Engineers approval of Keystone XL pipeline project under the reissued Nationwide Permit 12 for pipeline and utility projects.

Northern Plains Resource Council v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

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Montana Federal Court Vacated Nationwide Permit Due to Corps of Engineers Failure to Initiate Consultation Under Endangered Species Act

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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

Either money or something of monetary value is transferred between two or more organisations, people or countries.

Terrestrial means "of the earth" and relates to the risks to ecological system that includes all living organisms and their interactions within land-based environments, such as forests, grasslands, and deserts.

Social inclusion is the process of improving the terms on which individuals and groups take part in society—improving the ability, opportunity, and dignity of those disadvantaged on the basis of their identity.

Oil is a combustible liquid fossil fuel composed mainly of hydrocarbons, occurring as crude oil and refined into petroleum products such as petrol, diesel and kerosene.

Fossil gas, commonly known as natural gas, is a fossil fuel consisting chiefly of methane with smaller amounts of other hydrocarbons and trace gases, found in underground deposits.

People with different national or cultural traditions from the dominant population

Social and cultural groups that share collective ancestral ties to the lands and natural resources where they live, occupy or from which they have been displaced

Activities that involve planning, designing and building infrastructure, residential, and commercial structures.

This sector involves activities to move goods and people, alongside the storage of products.

Activities involving the management, development, and sale of property assets.

Activities that relate to the production of goods and services from forests.

Activities involving the catching, processing, and selling of fish for food, recreation, and industry.

Climate change can have a range of impacts on technological system. Extreme weather events can cause infrastructure failures like power outages or damage to roads and bridges, as well as the impacts from waste following natural disasters. Human activities also cause technological impacts, such as the risks posed by oil spillage and leaks.

Slow onset events evolve gradually from incremental changes over many years or from increased frequency or intensity of recurring events. As defined in the Cancun Adaptation Framework (2010), slow onset events include risks and impacts from rising temperatures, desertification, biodiversity loss, land and forest degradation, glacial retreat, ocean acidification, sea level rise, and salinization.

Montana Federal Court Vacated Nationwide Permit Due to Corps of Engineers Failure to Initiate Consultation Under Endangered Species Act

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Just transition

Fossil fuel

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Finance