Judge Nixes Drilling Leases Across 400k Acres Of Sage Grouse Habitat boisestatepublicradio.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from boisestatepublicradio.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Center for Biological Diversity: BOISE, Idaho A federal judge on Wednesday suspended new drilling and fracking on 605 federal oil and gas leases spanning 403,820 acres of greater sage-grouse habitat in Wyoming and Montana.
Great Falls, MT â
Today, the Northern Cheyenne Tribe and environmental groups filed their opening brief today challenging the Biden administrationâs decision to defend a Trump-era policy continuing coal leasing on public lands.
Former Interior Secretary, Ryan Zinke reversed an Obama-era moratorium barring companies from future leasing of most federal lands for coal exploration or extraction. In 2019, Earthjustice, on behalf of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, Citizens for Clean Energy, Montana Environmental Information Center, Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, WildEarth Guardians, and Defenders of Wildlife, won a challenge to this Trump policy. However, the court-ordered remedy for the Trump administration, an environmental assessment, was also flawed. So the groups went back to court last year to challenge it. Today, the groups filed the opening brief to that second challenge.Â
For Immediate Release, May 18, 2021
Contact:
Michael Saul, Center for Biological Diversity, (303) 915-8308 msaul@biologicaldiversity.org
Thomas Young, Sierra Club, (719) 393-2354, thomas.young@sierraclub.org
Environmental Groups Head to Court Against Biden Administration’s Defense of Federal Coal Leasing
GREAT FALLS,
Mont. Tribal and environmental groups filed their opening brief today challenging the Biden administration’s decision to defend a Trump-era policy continuing coal leasing on public lands. The brief argues that the Trump administration unlawfully tried to paper over fatal flaws in its rushed attempt to justify a policy reopening public lands to polluting coal mining.
In 2017 former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke reversed an Obama-era moratorium barring companies from future leasing of most federal lands for coal exploration or extraction pending completion of an environmental review. In 2019 Earthjustice, on behalf of the Northern Che
Biden administration considers mining ban to protect grouse
This article is provided courtesy of the Associated Press.
Greater Sage Grouse (Shutterstock)
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The Interior Department review comes in response to a federal court order and is expected to cover millions of acres of sage brush habitat considered crucial to the bird’s long-term survival.
A temporary ban on mining was imposed under former President Barack Obama but dropped by the Trump administration. The affected lands totaled 10 million acres in Idaho, Nevada, Montana, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming.
Millions of sage grouse once roamed the West. Development, livestock grazing and an invasive grass that encourages wildfires reduced the species population to fewer than 500,000. The quirky birds with long, pointed tail feathers are known for the male’s elaborate courtship display in which air sacs in the neck are inflated to make a popping sound.