National Parks Conservation Association v. United States Bureau of Land Management

Summary

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of California considers challenges under NEPA and FLPMA to the Bureau of Land Management’s amendment of the California Desert Conservation Area Plan and approval of a right-of-way for Eagle Crest Energy Company’s electrical transmission line and water pipeline. The court grants summary judgment to the federal defendants and intervenor defendant and denies the National Parks Conservation Association’s motion, concluding that BLM properly tiered its environmental assessment to a prior FERC environmental impact statement and acted reasonably in declining to prepare a separate EIS.

Holdings

1. BLM permissibly tiered its environmental assessment to FERC's 2012 environmental impact statement and sufficiently supplemented the prior analysis with project-specific review of groundwater and wildlife impacts.
2. BLM's decision to prepare an environmental assessment and issue a Finding of No Significant Impact instead of preparing a separate EIS was not arbitrary or capricious.
3. BLM satisfied NEPA's alternatives-analysis requirement for an EA by considering the preferred alternative and the no-action alternative; it was not required to analyze the speculative reintegration alternative in detail.
4. BLM complied with FLPMA, the CDCA, and the CDCA Plan when it adopted a project-specific amendment to the CDCA Plan and granted the right-of-way.

Questions Presented

1. Whether BLM permissibly tiered its environmental assessment to FERC's 2012 environmental impact statement and adequately supplemented that analysis concerning groundwater and wildlife impacts.
2. Whether BLM's decision to prepare an environmental assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact rather than a separate environmental impact statement was arbitrary or capricious under NEPA.
3. Whether BLM considered a reasonable range of alternatives, including the proposed reintegration of the project lands into Joshua Tree National Park.
4. Whether BLM adequately analyzed direct and cumulative groundwater impacts, including impacts on the Colorado River, local springs, and other proposed solar projects.
5. Whether BLM adequately considered effects on desert tortoises, desert bighorn sheep, and the migratory corridor between the Eagle Mountain and Coxcomb Mountain herds.
6. Whether BLM's project-specific amendment to the California Desert Conservation Area Plan and approval of the right-of-way violated FLPMA, the CDCA, or the CDCA Plan.

Disposition

other