Opinion ID: 187344
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: NEPA Climate Change and Baseline Data Claims

Text: We next consider the justiciability of Petitioners' climate change and baseline data claims under NEPA. Petitioners contend that Interior failed to account for (1) the present and future impact of climate change on the Program areas, and (2) the impact on climate change of the additional consumption caused by the Program. They also contend that Interior has effectively conceded that there is insufficient data detailing the baseline biological condition of the Beaufort, Bering, and Chukchi Seas in the Leasing Program because Interior has admitted that there are gaps in the baseline research for these areas. Petitioners argue that Interior cannot adequately describe the affected areas, as required by 40 C.F.R. § 1502.15, until it conducts additional research to close these gaps, and completely establish the baseline conditions. Interior's failure to conduct this research to close the baseline data gaps therefore violates NEPA. In addition, Petitioners contend that Interior has violated 40 C.F.R. § 1502.22 because Interior has not disclosed to what extent this baseline information is either unavailable or absent, and has failed to provide this information, which is required to assess the environmental condition of 40 C.F.R. § 1502.15. Here, Petitioners' NEPA-based claims are not ripe due to the multiple stage nature of the Leasing Program. This court's decision in Wyoming Outdoor Council v. United States Forest Service, 165 F.3d 43 (D.C.Cir.1999), is instructive here. In Wyoming Outdoor Council, the court was faced with a NEPA challenge to a multi-stage on-shore leasing program similar to the Leasing Program at hand. The Wyoming Outdoor Council petitioners argued that the Forest Service violated NEPA because it approved an oil-and-gas leasing program without first determining whether an adequate site-specific environmental review had been performed. As here, the petitioners' challenge in Wyoming Outdoor Council was brought at the early stage of the program that involved only the identification and mapping of areas that might be suitable for leasing. Id. at 45. The court dismissed the petitioners' NEPA challenge as unripe, finding that an agency's NEPA obligations mature only once it reaches a critical stage of a decision which will result in `irreversible and irretrievable commitments of resources' to an action that will affect the environment. Id. at 49 (quoting Mobil Oil Corp. v. FTC, 562 F.2d 170, 173 (2d Cir.1977)). In the context of multiple-stage leasing programs, we ultimately held that the point of irreversible and irretrievable commitment of resources and the concomitant obligation to fully comply with NEPA do not mature until leases are issued. Wyoming Outdoor Council, 165 F.3d at 49. Applying this reasoning here, Petitioners' NEPA challenges are not ripe for review. At the point that Petitioners filed their petitions, Interior had only approved the Leasing Program at issue. No lease-sales had yet occurred. The Leasing Program here had therefore not yet reached that critical stage where an irreversible and irretrievable commitment of resources has occurred that will adversely affect the environment. See id. Additionally, any harm that might befall Petitioners by having to wait until the actual leasing stage to bring their claims is outweighed by the harm to Interior (and other agencies). Allowing a petitioner to bring such NEPA challenges to a leasing program when no rights have yet been implicated, or actions taken, would essentially create an additional procedural requirement for all agencies adopting any segmented program. This would impose too onerous an obligation, and would require an agency to divert too many of its resources at too early a stage in the decision-making process. By contrast, Petitioners suffer little by having to wait until the leasing stage has commenced in order to receive the information it requires. In the meantime, as Interior points out, no drilling will have occurred, and consequently, no harm will yet have occurred to the animals or their environment. [1] Petitioners argue, however, that the Supreme Court's decision in Ohio Forestry Association, Inc. v. Sierra Club, 523 U.S. 726, 118 S.Ct. 1665, 140 L.Ed.2d 921 (1998), forestalls a conclusion that their NEPA challenges are not ripe. Specifically, Petitioners point to the Court's statement that a person with standing who is injured by a failure to comply with the NEPA procedure may complain of that failure at the time the failure takes place, for the claim can never get riper. Id. at 737, 118 S.Ct. 1665. Accordingly, Petitioners argue that their NEPA claims are justiciable because, as the Court noted, they cannot get any riper. Ohio Forestry does not control. First, the case concerned a claim that the Forest Service had violated the National Forest Management Act of 1976 (NFMA), and whether that claim was ripe for review. The quotation Petitioners rely on was therefore dicta. See id. at 737, 118 S.Ct. 1665. True, considered dicta of the Supreme Court has long been regarded as forceful, even though it is not binding. See Cohens v. Virginia, 19 U.S. (6 Wheat.) 264, 399, 5 L.Ed. 257 (1821). Nevertheless, in Ohio Forestry, the Court did not opine that the obligation to conduct research under NEPA begins the moment an OCSLA Leasing Program is adopted, as Petitioners suggest. Ohio Forestry, 523 U.S. at 737, 118 S.Ct. 1665. To the contrary, the Supreme Court did not address when the obligation to provide research under NEPA began. Id. The Court noted only that NEPA claims do not get any riper than they are at the moment a violation occurred. Id. It was not resolving the point at which such a violation would occur. Id. Wyoming Outdoor Council, by contrast, fills in this gap by stating that a NEPA obligation commences once the agency reaches a critical stage of a decisionspecifically, the leasing stage. Wyoming Outdoor Council, 165 F.3d at 49. It stands to reason that, applying Ohio Forestry, Petitioners' NEPA claims would not get any riper than at the time NEPA's obligation commenced and was disregarded. That obligation has not yet occurred because Interior has only reached the Leasing Program issuance stage, and has not yet begun the leasing stage. Accordingly, Ohio Forestry does not alter our analysis. For these reasons, Petitioners' NEPA claims are not ripe.