Energy

This case challenges a poorly-sited wind facility consisting of 75 wind turbines (each over 400 feet tall) as well as over 25 miles of new roads on BLM public land in Spring Valley, Nevada (east of Ely).  The facility near Great Basin National Park would be only 4 miles from a regionally-significant bat roost known as the Rose Guano Cave.  This cave houses up to 1 million Brazilian free-tailed bats during their fall migration.  

Files: 

9th Circuit concurrence (7-15-11)

9th Circuit memorandum opinion (7-15-11)

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

Map of the Ruby Pipeline Route

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: 

Opening Brief for Summary Judgement August 2011

Statement of Facts August 2011

Map

Great Basin sage grouse complaint

Brief opposing BLM's motion to dismiss