Free Republic

On September 24, 2015, the federal Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) published a Notice of Proposed Withdrawal (“BLM notice”), proposing to withdraw from mineral location and entry federal lands identified as “sagebrush focal areas” in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming. The BLM notice commences a two-year temporary segregation period, prohibiting location and entry of new mining claims on BLM and U.S. Forest Service lands in these sagebrush focal areas. If the BLM decides to withdraw the area at the end of the segregation period, the withdrawal will last up to 20 years, but could be extended in the...

A U.S. judge on Friday approved a deal between conservationists and Montana officials to restrict road-building and logging in roughly 22,000 acres of state forest lands that make up core habitat for federally protected grizzlies. The agreement resolves a lawsuit brought by conservationists after the state had sought to open 37,000 acres , mostly in the Stillwater State Forest, to timber harvesting despite what environmentalists said would be the destruction of prime grizzly bear territory. ... U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy in a decision last year found the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service violated the Endangered Species Act by...

SALT LAKE CITY — A coalition of conservation groups is hailing a federal judge's ruling Monday to strike down portions of the Richfield Bureau of Land Management plan they said gave deference to off-road vehicles at the expense of the environment. "This landmark decision is a resounding rejection of the BLM’s mismanagement of Utah’s stunning public lands,” said Stephen Bloch, legal director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. ... The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance was among seven groups that filed a legal challenge to the Bush-era plans following their adoption in 2008, contending they imperiled pristine landscapes. The Richfield plan...

Taxes fund environmental suits - Environmental law firms reap billions in fees to fund lawsuits October 15, 2009 The federal government has paid out billions of dollars to environmental groups for attorney fees and costs, according to data assembled by a Cheyenne, Wyoming, lawyer. Karen Budd-Falen of Budd-Falen Law Offices [main@buddfalen.com or 307-632-5105] said the government between 2003 and 2007 paid more than $4.7 billion in taxpayer money to environmental law firms -- and that's just in the lawsuits she tracked. The actual figure, she said, is far greater. "I think we only found that the iceberg exists," she said....

When the Obama EPA is not spying on cattle and pork ranches with drones, they’re illegally releasing information on livestock producers to far left extremist groups. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the National Pork Producers are furious after the Obama Environmental Protection Agency illegally gave information on livestock farmers to extremist animal rights groups. Farm Futures reported: NCBA and the National Pork Producers Council are both furious with EPA for handing extremist groups illegally gathered data on farmers who operate confined animal feeding operations. NCBA said early this week it was notified by the EPA that the agency had...

In response to a petition filed by Earthjustice and several other organizations, the United States Environmental Protection Agency has stated that it will use the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to draft regulations requiring companies to disclose information regarding "chemical substances and mixtures used in hydraulic fracturing." Although the EPA has not indicated what information will be subject to disclosure, the agency stated that it will attempt to avoid duplication of "the well-by-well disclosure programs already being implemented in several states," and that it anticipates that its regulations will "focus on providing aggregate pictures of the chemical substances and mixtures...

Anchorage, Alaska (AP) -- Alaska Native and environmental groups are challenging a federal air permit granted to Royal Dutch Shell PLC for offshore drilling in Arctic waters. Shell hopes to drill exploratory wells next summer off Alaska's northern coasts. The Environmental Protection Agency issued an air permit Friday for a Shell drill ship called the Kulluk.

Environmental groups Thursday sued the Obama administration over its approval of a Shell plan to drill for oil deep under the Gulf of Mexico. The suit was the opening salvo in what could be a lengthy legal fight over U.S. drilling policy following the resumption of oil and gas exploration after the Deepwater Horizon disaster. It came a day after ExxonMobil announced one of the largest oil discoveries ever in the Gulf…

WASHINGTON -- Lawsuits filed Thursday that challenge the federal government's approval of a Shell Oil Co. offshore exploration plan present a major test of regulators' power to swiftly review deep-water drilling blueprints. In two separate but overlapping filings, conservationists argue the government was bound by federal law to first finish a post-spill environmental study of the Gulf of Mexico before approving Shell's plan last month. The legal complaints were filed in the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit Court of Appeals — one by the Defenders of Wildlife, Center for Biological Diversity and the Natural Resources Defense Council and the other by Earthjustice,...

TUCSON — A lawyer for environmental activists wants a federal judge to order two U.S. agencies — The Fish and Wildlife Service and the Army — to renegotiate a biological opinion concerning the San Pedro River and its environs contending the two entities have failed to follow the Endangered Species Act. The plaintiff’s attorney, McCrystie Adams, said the continuing growth in the Sierra Vista area is caused by the existence of Fort Huachuca and as more people come to the area, they “are draining the aquifer year after year.” However, a U.S. Department of Justice attorney contends all the requirements...

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service erred little when it designated a vast area scattered over six states as critical habitat for the threatened Canada lynx...The designated habitat totals 39,000 square miles... The Fish and Wildlife Service designated the habitat last year, prompting a lawsuit from snowmobile enthusiast groups in Wyoming and Washington state. The groups worry the designation could close off areas to snowmobiling and harm snowmobile-related businesses. She is the wife of Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal, who nominated her for the bench. "We're really pleased she's upheld the designation almost entirely," said Sean Helle, an attorney with the...

the Senator's not so secret advisor on environmental law happens to be his wife: Susan Daggett. Susan Daggett...has worked for the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund ... a commissioner of the Denver Water Board. In 1998 Susan Daggett, an attorney with Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund ... Susan Daggett returned to Washington to work for the Natural Resources Defense Council. She later was the managing attorney with Earth Justice Legal Defense Fund...

Toxic air pollution spikes from California's 21 refineries may be sharply curtailed in the wake of a U.S. Court of Appeals decision Friday in Washington. In a suit brought by the Sierra Club and other groups, the court struck down a 14-year-old federal regulation thatallowed refineries, chemical plants and other industrial plants to exceed pollution limits during start-ups, shutdowns and equipment outages. Public health advocates in Southern California's oil refinery hub hailed the decision, saying that facilities routinely operate in malfunction mode to evade pollution caps. ... The Environmental Protection Agency regulation amounted to a "gaping loophole," according to the...

In case you haven't noticed, gas prices are soaring, hiking the cost of food and just about everything else. If you believe Hillary Clinton, the blame for all this lies on the shoulders of those greedy oil companies and their bloated profit margins, a notion that like just about every other snake-oil remedy she tries to peddle is simply not the case. We're in the mess in which we find ourselves because of a small handful of people with the money and the power to inflict grievous harm on their fellow humans, whom they just happen to despise. It's about...

Fuel-reduction logging and controlled-burn Forest Service projects on at least 1.2 million public acres would be exempt from the public comment and appeals process under a provision included in a spending bill that a key Senate committee recently approved. Forest Service officials say the measure would reduce the cost and time for high-priority projects... The measure would allow the Forest Service to exempt from the comment and appeals process controlled-burn projects of up to 4,500 acres and fuel-reduction logging projects of up to 1,000 acres... The congressional action comes as the matter remains under litigation, with arguments made in a...

An environmental group sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday claiming a new regulation over air pollution in the Central Valley is too lax. Earthjustice is challenging the rule over particulate matter with a lawsuit filed in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In particulate matter pollution, tiny specks of dust and dirt can linger in the air and become lodged in people's lungs, causing numerous health problems, such as asthma. Agriculture in the San Joaquin Valley, one of the nation's most polluted air basins, is one of the leading causes of particulate matter in the region. The...

A conference in Waikiki sparked a protest today over an industry that's beginning to thrive in Hawaii - biotechnology. Police monitored a small group of Native Hawaiians and environmentalists who gathered to protest practices in genetic engineering. Across the street, more than 300 people gathered from around the Pacific Rim to share ideas and compare progress in the larger field of biotech. "The biotech industry isn't paying any attention to the serious risk to human health and the environment of their experiments," said Isaac Moriwake of Earthjustice. "The result is they're turning the people of Hawaii and the lands of...

MISSOULA, Mont. — As the Bush administration prepares to remove Yellowstone's grizzly bears from the endangered-species list, a schism has emerged in the environmental movement over whether the bears remain at risk. The nation's largest environmental group, the National Wildlife Federation, supports delisting the bears, whose numbers have bounced back impressively after three decades of federal protection. But other powerful organizations, including the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Earthjustice, are threatening to sue the Bush administration if, as expected, it removes Yellowstone grizzlies from the list. "The recovery has been a huge success, but removing federal protection...

SIERRA VISTA - The Center for Biological Diversity and Maricopa Audubon Society are seeking court orders to force several federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Defense and Fort Huachuca's commanding general, into compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act or the federal Endangered Species Act. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal district court in Tucson, names as defendants the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, U.S. Small Business Administration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Department of Defense and "Barbara Fast, in her official capacity as commanding general of Fort Huachuca."...

Finally, more than four years after its hideous birth, the Clinton "Roadless Rule" is dead. The Bush administration and the Forest Service just announced a final rule that effectively undoes Clinton's reckless decree. Dying with the "Roadless Rule" are the following: - threats of catastrophic wildfire - threats of forest infestation and disease - lack of public access to public lands - improper resource management - unhealthy forests - top-down federal overreach Recall that Bill Clinton, just eight days before he left office, in the dark of night, penned his infamous, unilateral, executive order that locked up over 58 million...