"Environmentalists notched an important legal win last week when a district court called on the federal government to boost its climate analysis for fossil fuel development in the West.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Montana on Friday ruled that the Bureau of Land Management failed to fully factor in climate change in resource management plans (RMPs) for the Powder River Basin — an area of Wyoming and Montana that is flush with coal, oil and gas.

The court ruled that BLM needs to rethink its analysis and consider alternative development scenarios that would make less coal available for leasing. The agency also must calculate greenhouse gas emissions that would result from burning fossil fuels developed under the plans.

BLM will have to go back to the drawing board for at least part of its environmental studies, which affect millions of acres of public lands in the Powder River Basin. It's just one of many recent cases in which courts have clarified how the agency should work climate issues into National Environmental Policy Act reviews."

Ellen M. Gilmer reports for EnergyWire March 26, 2018. [2]