Judges Take Different Tacks In High-Profile NEPA Remedy Rulings

Two judges are taking starkly different tacks when ruling on how to remedy federal agencies’ violations of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), highlight the range of legal remedies that are possible under the law as courts sometimes remand decisions to fix violations while in other cases they scrap-- or at least delay -- a project approval. In one case, issued Nov. 8, a federal judge vacated a high-profile coal mine expansion in a Colorado wilderness to prevent a “bureaucratic...