Judge orders BLM to reassess Ruby Pipeline

Federal land management agencies have been ordered by a judge to reassess the environmental impacts of an existing natural gas pipeline to rectify what conservationists are calling an incomplete and arbitrary assessment, leading to an improperly certified project. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ordered the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to release a supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) to address accusations by a number of conservation groups and concerned citizens that the construction of the Ruby Pipeline violated both the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act. The court found that “the BLM violated its substantive duty to ensure that its authorization of the project would not jeopardize the survival of the nine listed fish or adversely modify the species’ critical habitat.” The court also voided a U.S. Fish and Wildlife biological opinion issued in 2010 and the BLM’s record of decision regarding the project...more  

The pipeline is already built, but "the court ruled it is still possible to mitigate the pipeline’s adverse effects on listed species and critical habitats." 

We sure do have smart judges these days. Why they even know more about wildlife biology than the folks at USFWS.