Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance v. Norton, 237 F. Supp. 2d 48 (D.D.C. 2002)
Case Summary:
We represented the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and Natural Resources Defense
Council in a challenge under the National Environmental Policy Act to the
Department of Interior's approval of oil and gas exploration on the doorstep of
Arches National Park in Utah. In 2002 the U.S. District Court for the District of
Columbia ruled that, in approving the project, the Department of Interior failed
to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act. Specifically, the Court
ruled that the Bureau of Land Management failed to consider alternatives to the
proposed exploration and unlawfully relied on the permittee's insistence that
there were no such alternatives, and that the Interior Board of Land Appeals
failed to consider evidence that the mitigation measures BLM imposed were not
effective in reducing the adverse environmental impacts of the project. The Court remanded the
matter to the Interior Board of Land Appeals.
Plaintiffs: Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, Natural Resources Defense Council, Wilderness Society, and Sierra Club
Court: United States District Court for the District of Columbia