Opinion ID: 695504
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Injury to Other Parties and Public Interest

Text: 81 The district court failed to address these two prongs of the test for preliminary relief in its order. 82 The injury inflicted on other parties by granting Coteau a preliminary injunction in this case is minimal. OSM will suffer no harm if they wait until the case is adjudicated on the merits. They are fully aware, obviously, of the potential link between Coteau and Basin, and, as OSM itself has pointed out, Basin's current ownership and control information is readily available to OSM through Basin's own permit applications. 83 Public interest, too, does not weigh against the grant of a preliminary injunction to Coteau. The central public policy goal of SMCRA is to protect the environment and public health and safety: again, as OSM itself points out, Coteau has an exemplary record of regulatory compliance, and Basin has no outstanding violations. If Basin or an entity linked to it commits a violation, Basin will be directly responsible for its remedy. As we noted above, Coteau has no power to cause Basin to correct a violation, and thus OSM does not lose if Coteau is granted preliminary relief. The AVS system was created for the purpose of identifying violators who might try to avoid abating their violations by continuing to mine in revised corporate form. There is no showing that either Basin or Coteau has any violations to avoid, or that linking Coteau to Basin will aid in the remedying of future violation. There is, therefore, no indication that the public policy goals of SMCRA will suffer if Coteau is granted a preliminary injunction. 84 Because all four of the Dataphase factors weigh in favor of granting a preliminary injunction to Coteau, we find that the district court abused its discretion when it denied Coteau's motion, and remand with instructions to grant Coteau's motion for a preliminary injunction.