National Wildlife Federation and other organizations (NWF) and the State of Oregon filed motions for preliminary injunctions seeking to require the Bureau of Reclamation and other federal defendants to implement measures in the operation and maintenance of the Columbia River System’s dams and reservoirs to protect salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act. They filed their motions after the Trump administration withdrew from a memorandum of understanding that specified interim parameters for the system’s operation. In support of its motion, NWF argued that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on their claims that the defendants violated the ESA, including by failing to analyze whether the management of the Columbia River System would avoid jeopardy to the listed species in a future that includes climate change. NWF contended that the 2020 biological opinion prepared for the proposed action engaged “willful blindness to the real-world effects” and was arbitrary and capricious.

Challenges to reviews of the Federal Columbia River Power System's impacts on salmon and steelhead.

National Wildlife Federation v. National Marine Fisheries Service

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Preliminary Injunctive Relief Sought to Protect Salmon and Steelhead in Columbia River Basin

Filed

United States of America

Oregon

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Preliminary Injunctive Relief Sought to Protect Salmon and Steelhead in Columbia River Basin

Policy instrument

Risk

Impacted group

Renewable energy

Fossil fuel

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience

Finance