D.C. Circuit Rules For Public Health And Against Tobacco Companies

In the latest step to hold the major tobacco companies accountable for decades of fraud on the American people, today the D.C. Circuit affirmed two lower court rulings in a long-running lawsuit the United States has pursued against the companies for more than a decade.  In this round, the companies argued that the district court’s findings and remedies in connection with their 50-years of fraud should be set aside in light of the 2009 legislation which gave the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate cigarettes.  Rejecting all of the defendants’ arguments, the D.C. Circuit ruled that the district court’s overwhelming findings of fraud supported the conclusion that misconduct will continue despite the new law.  The Court also rejected the companies’ effort to restrict the tobacco marketing data that the Department of Justice may review to monitor the companies’ compliance with the Court’s ruling.  We represent six public health organizations, including the American Cancer Society and Tobacco-Free Kids, who intervened in the suit to advocate for strong and effective remedies, and participated in both of the appeals resolved today.  The two opinions are available here.

Emergency Petition Submitted To USFS To Maintain Burnt Mountain's Roadlessness

Yesterday, on behalf of The Ark Initiative, we submitted an emergency petition to the U.S. Forest Service requesting that the agency revisit an erroneous roadless determination on Burnt Mountain near the Maroon Bells - Snowmass Wilderness Area in Colorado.  The practical effect of this error is that a private company, which has received authorization from the Service to conduct tree cutting and other irreversible activities in this parcel based on the error, plans to imminently begin felling trees and thus permanently destroy the roadless characteristics and wilderness qualities of this unique parcel of public land.  We have requested a response from the Service by the end of the week.  The petition can be found here.  

Court Rejects NPS's Attempt To Open Destructive ORV Trails In Big Cypress

Yesterday, a federal district court ruled that the National Park Service ("NPS") and Fish and Wildlife Service violated several environmental laws (NEPA, ESA, and the Park Service Organic Act, among others) when NPS opened sensitive areas of the Bear Island Unit of the Big Cypress National Preserve to off-road vehicle use that the same agency had expressly forbidden seven years earlier.  Because the agencies provided no coherent explanation for changing their course of action to allow ORV use in these areas, which the agencies anticipated would adversely affect water, vegetation, and federally protected wildlife, the court set aside the decision and thus closed all of these trails to ORV use within 14 days.  The decision can be found here.

Lawsuit Filed To Protect Grand Staircase Escalate National Monument

On behalf of Western Watershed Project, we filed a lawsuit in federal district court in D.C. on Friday challenging the failure of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to protect resources in the spectacular Grand Staircase Escalate National Monument in southern Utah.  Public lands grazing is seriously degrading portions of the Monument.  Although six years ago BLM identified specific actions that must be taken to address this problem, these actions have never occurred.  Through the lawsuit plaintiffs seek a Court Order directing that BLM finally carry out these specific actions.  A copy of the Complaint is here.

Federal Agencies Sued Over Failure to Disclose Correspondence with Wind Industry

On behalf of the American Bird Conservancy (ABC), we sued the Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Indian Affairs for failure to comply with mandatory deadlines under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

ABC filed six requests under FOIA – all of them more than eight months ago. ABC’s FOIA requests asked for the Fish and Wildlife Service’s correspondence with wind developers regarding birds and bats, as well as related information about wildlife impacts, such as studies showing which bird and bat species were in the area and how many had been killed by the facilities. The Fish and Wildlife Service subsequently referred one request to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Under FOIA’s strict deadlines, the agencies were required to fulfill the requests or claim exemptions within 20 working days, and hence ABC has a right to seek judicial intervention.  The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

ABC’s FOIA requests were in regard to proposed and existing wind energy developments in Arizona, California, Florida, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Texas. Birds that could potentially be harmed include Bald and Golden Eagles, as well as birds that have been federally designated as threatened and endangered, such as Whooping Cranes, Northern Aplomado Falcons, Least Terns, Piping Plovers, Marbled Murrelets, Snail Kites, Wood Storks, and Northern Crested Caracaras.

In Response to Wild Horse Groups’ Legal Arguments, BLM Withdraws Pancake Complex Roundup Decision

Several weeks after a federal judge ruled that the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) should have considered declarations from four leading wild horse scientists who criticized the agency’s radical approach to wild horse management, which involves castrating male horses and returning them to the range with unknown, and likely severe, impacts to individual horses, their herds, and the public’s ability to view these horses in their natural “wild” state, BLM has filed a motion for voluntary remand asking for an opportunity to reconsider its decision.  Once the request is approved by the court, BLM’s November 2011 roundup decision will be withdrawn, and no management actions can be taken to round up wild horses in the Pancake Complex or to castrate male horses that live there unless and until BLM issues a new decision that fully complies with the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. 

Company Pulls The Plug On Industrial Wind Farm In Critical Indiana Bat Habitat

After years of controversy, energy company Gamesa has withdrawn its plans to build an industral wind power facility near Shaffer Mountain, Pennsylvania.  The project would have been placed in an important migratory corridor for Golden eagles and in the midst of a maternity colony of critically endangered Indiana bats.  This would have been the first time that a wind project – which according to leading experts would have killed and harmed Indiana bats due to turbine collisions and a pressurizing condition called barotrauma – would be sited in such a sensitive location for an endagered species.  On behalf of several conservation organizations and community members, we submitted multiple notice letters and comments to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers detailing various violations of the Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, and National Environmental Policy Act, which inevitably influenced the company’s decision to withdraw from this project in lieu of more sustainable project locations elsewhere that will better allow for clean, renewable energy without sacrificing our nation’s important natural resources.