United States Ninth Circuit

Summary judgment on claims under federal statutes, including the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), brought against federal agencies involving the approval of two gold mining permits for a company is reversed in part where vague and conclusory statements in final environmental impact statements (EIS), without any supporting data, did not constitute a "hard look" at the environmental consequences of the action as required by NEPA, and thus, the cumulative impacts analysis was insufficient.

Appellate Information

• Argued 02/14/2006
• Decided 08/01/2006
• Published 08/01/2006

Judges

• WALLACE, Circuit Judge., Before J. CLIFFORD WALLACE, MICHAEL DALY HAWKINS, and SIDNEY R. THOMAS, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Roger Flynn, Jeffrey C. Parsons, Western Mining Action Project, Boulder, CO;  Nicole U. Rinke, Western Mining Action Project, Reno, NV, for the plaintiffs-appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• Thomas L. Sansonetti, Andrew Mergen, John E. Arbab, Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., for the defendants-appellees., Scott W. Hardt, Temkin Wielga & Hardt LLP, Denver, CO, for the intervenor-appellee.