A coal mining company is suing the Biden administration for refusing to review its plan to lease tracts of land and grow its operations in North Dakota — a delay the company says federal officials are blaming on their inability to measure the effect of the expansion on greenhouse gases.
Falkirk Mining, an Ohio-based subsidiary of NACCO Natural Resources, filed a complaint against the Interior Department and the Bureau of Land Management in the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota late last month.
The company is accusing BLM of violating several laws, including the bedrock National Environmental Policy Act, which requires agencies to complete an environmental assessment within a year of concluding that such a review is required or upon announcing its intent to conduct such a review.
The BLM declined to comment on the lawsuit, but a spokesperson for the bureau confirmed on background that projects’ greenhouse gas emissions are analyzed during NEPA reviews.
