19 Aug CHC and Climate Groups Sue BLM over RMP

CHC and Climate groups sued the Trump administration today over its plan to expand drilling, fracking and mining across 1.7 million acres of public lands in southwestern Colorado, one of the fastest-warming regions in the nation.

Today’s lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Denver, said the Bureau of Land Management violated federal law by refusing to consider a plan to end new fossil fuel leasing and not analyzing how more oil, gas and coal development could harm organic agriculture, the climate and endangered species like the Gunnison sage grouse.

On the heels of the Juliana v. United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in January 2020, which found the federal government responsible for climate change through such actions as resource-management plans and oil and gas leasing, the decision to approve the Uncompahgre RMP, which opens up 95% of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands and minerals to oil and gas leasing is not only unconscionable, but a smoking gun. The public submitted 53,000 no-leasing comments to the BLM out of a total of 57,000 comments. Yet the BLM sided with industry to exploit and destroy the rare and irreplaceable ecosystem of the North Fork of the Gunnison River at the expense of our community and future generations.  Read our press release here.