Acting Interior Secretary Bernhardt Sued for Gutting Sage Grouse Plans

Conservation groups sued acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and the Bureau of Land Management in federal court today over their recent decisions to gut protections for greater sage grouse across millions of acres of public land in the West. Today’s lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Boise, identifies Bernhardt as the architect of recent policy changes adopted by the Trump administration to rescind or weaken the 2015 plans on BLM land in seven states with most of the remaining sage-grouse populations ― Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Nevada, California and Oregon. The challenged plans created enormous loopholes that make it easier for fracking and drilling near the imperiled bird’s prime habitat. The lawsuit notes that these changes were sought by the oil and gas industry, beginning in July 2017, and that Bernhardt and BLM have misled the public about the nature and extent of the changes. In 2016 the groups challenged the plans as not doing enough for sage grouse. The complaint filed today seeks to supplement that case to challenge the recent Trump administration rollbacks. The groups are represented by Advocates for the West, a nonprofit, public-interest law firm based in Boise...MORE