March – April 2018, Volume 46, Number 2

On March 23rd, Judge Brian Morris from the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana issued a landmark decision holding that the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) plan to open up the entire Powder River Basin to 10.2 billion tons of federal coal leasing violated NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) requirements. The court found that BLM’s regional management plan failed to consider
alternatives that would reduce impacts to air, land, water, wildlife, and the global climate.

The case was brought by the Western Environmental Law Center on behalf of a coalition of conservation groups in Montana and Wyoming, including Powder River Basin Resource Council and its regional network, the Western Organization of Resource Councils (WORC.)

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