The Ruby pipeline is a project of El Paso Pipeline Corp., the country's largest pipeline company, which will cover 650 miles from southwestern Wyoming to southern Oregon.  The Ruby pipeline will carry 1.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, providing a coal substitute for utilities on the West Coast. 

But the Ruby pipeline route cuts through key sagebrush habitats, and will contribute to fragmentation of sage-grouse and pygmy rabbits - both declining species that warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act. 

Files: 

WWP - Ruby settlement press release

Representing Idaho Conservation League, we successfully used the public trust doctrine to block the proposed Auger Falls dams on the mid-Snake River near the city of Twin Falls.  After federal agencies had issued permits for the dam, the Idaho State Land Board voted -- after a public hearing which voiced strong opposition to another dam on the mid-Snake -- to deny a submerged lands easement.  That ruling was upheld in state district court.

This large case challenges several hundred grazing permits, oil and gas leases, and other land management decisions approved by BLM during the last years of the Bush Administration, which individually and together harm the Great Basin core population of greater sage-grouse in Idaho and Nevada.

Files: 

Great Basin sage grouse complaint

Brief opposing BLM's motion to dismiss