On July 2, 2019, petitioners WildEarth Guardians, joined by
other conservation groups, filed a petition for review in the U.S.
District Court for the District of Colorado seeking to challenge
agency approval of a mining plan modification for the
coal-producing West Elk Mine in 2018 ("Mining Plan").
WildEarth Guardians v. Bernhardt, No. 1:19-1920 (D.
Colo.). The defendants in this case include the Secretary of the
Interior ("Secretary"), the Bureau of Land Management
("BLM"), and the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and
Enforcement ("OSMRE"). The Mining Plan authorizes the
expansion of the West Elk Mine into 1,720 acres of government-owned
land in the Sunset Roadless Area.
The petitioners present four arguments, all rooted in the
defendants' alleged violation of the National Environmental
Policy Act ("NEPA") due to the defendants' adoption
of a 2017 supplemental environmental impact statement from the
leasing modification stage ("Leasing SFEIS") rather
