Judge tosses lawsuit over Trump-era key environmental law reform
U.S. President Donald Trump announces proposed rollbacks to the National Environmental Policy Act regulations as he stands surrounded by local politicians and representatives of building, contracting, real estate, transportation and manufacturing groups during an event in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, U.S., January 9, 2020. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
(Reuters) - A federal judge in Charlottesville, Virginia on Monday tossed a lawsuit by environmentalists seeking to undo Trump-era reforms of a bedrock environmental law.
U.S. District Judge James Jones dismissed claims by Wild Virginia and more than a dozen other green groups who sued the White House Council of Environmental Quality (CEQ) to undo a rule that narrows ways to implement the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
Kimberley Hunter of the Southern Environmental Law Center, who represents the plaintiffs, said: "In its opinion, the Court recognized that we have been largely successful in ensuring that the illegal, and harmful Trump NEPA Rule has yet to be widely implemented. We will continue to push forward to ensure it is erased from the books."
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In his ruling, Jones said the plaintiffs' claims were unripe for a lawsuit because a deadline for agencies to implement the reforms is still months away.
"The potential applications and outcomes of the regulatory changes adopted are simply too attenuated and speculative," the judge said.
The Biden administration is "actively reconsidering" the NEPA reform at the center of the lawsuit, the ruling says in citing DOJ lawyers representing the administration.
The environmental groups sued Trump's CEQ over the reform in July. They claimed the public-comment period leading to the adoption of the revised regulations failed to meet Administrative Procedure Act requirements.
The new regulations exempt a large class of projects from environmental review and eliminate the requirement to analyze a project's indirect and cumulative effects, among other things.
NEPA's overhaul was part of the Trump administration's broader campaign to fast-track infrastructure projects such as oil pipelines and road expansions.
It took effect in September, updating NEPA for the first time in more than 40 years.
The case is Wild Virginia et al v. Council on Environmental Quality et al, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, No. 3:20-cv-00045.
For Wild Virginia et al: Kimberley Hunter of the Southern Environmental Law Center
For Council on Environmental Quality et al: Clare Boronow with the U.S. Department of Justice
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