News & Updates
Court: Approval of old-growth sales in northern spotted owl habitat violated Endangered Species Act
Late Friday, a judge in the District Court for the District of Oregon ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) justification for Bureau of Land Management (Bureau) timber sales totaling nearly 18,000 acres including in old growth forest violated the...
Federal judge rules massive Montana coal mine expansion illegal
Late Friday, Billings Federal District Court Judge Susan Watters ruled that a massive expansion of the Rosebud coal strip-mine was approved illegally. The expansion was approved in June 2019 by the federal Office of Surface Mining (OSM), and allowed Western Rosebud...
Wildlife advocates challenge U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rule that fails endangered Mexican gray wolves
Today, wildlife advocates filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) for its failure to adopt an adequate management rule for recovering the critically endangered population of Mexican gray wolves as required by the Endangered Species Act. The...
Indigenous and conservation groups to federal court: Protect Greater Chaco region from illegal fracking
Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit heard oral arguments related to the Trump administration’s illegal approval of more than 370 drilling permits in the Greater Chaco region of northwest New Mexico. Attorneys with the Biden administration defended...
STATEMENT: Manchin’s “dirty deal” on permitting misguided, harmful
Yesterday, Sen. Manchin released the text of his Inflation Reduction Act-affiliated dirty deal. The bill, drafted with the American Petroleum Institute, is based on a false narrative that weakening bedrock environmental laws (namely the National Environmental Policy...
Lawsuit aims to protect grizzlies from expanded grazing in Montana’s Paradise Valley
Nine conservation organizations filed a lawsuit today to challenge the U.S. Forest Service’s 2021 decision to authorize expanded livestock grazing on six allotments on the east side of Montana’s Paradise Valley. The allotments lie just north of Yellowstone National...
Legal agreement blocks drilling on 58,000 acres in Montana, Dakotas pending new analysis
Conservation groups and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) yesterday reached a settlement agreement that will prevent new oil and gas drilling on 58,000 acres of public lands in Montana and the Dakotas pending a new analysis of its potential harm to groundwater and...
Derek Red Arrow Frank joins WELC board of directors
The Western Environmental Law Center, a nonprofit public-interest environmental law firm, is proud to announce the addition of Derek Red Arrow Frank to its board of directors. Derek is an enrolled member of the Nez Perce Tribe and an attorney with the law firm of...
Court rejects Wyoming, industry challenge to Biden administration postponement of oil, gas lease sales
A federal judge in Wyoming affirmed on Friday the Biden administration’s decisions to postpone oil and gas lease sales in early 2021, holding that the federal government has broad authority to postpone sales in order to address environmental concerns. The Wyoming...
Court rejects Wyoming, industry challenge to Biden postponement of oil, gas lease sales
A federal judge in Wyoming today affirmed the Biden administration’s authority to not hold oil and gas lease sales in early 2021. The judge further found that industry groups lacked standing to challenge those lease sale postponements. The Wyoming court rejected...
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