The states of Utah and Wyoming are asking a federal court to issue an order blocking the Bureau of Land Management from implementing its recently finalized public lands rule and causing “irreparable injury” to both states.
The request for an injunction was made after the two states filed a joint federal lawsuit last month in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah that says BLM violated federal law by not conducting a detailed analysis of the rule before finalizing it.
The states say in the preliminary injunction petition filed with a magistrate judge late last week that they are likely to win the case on its merits and that “the States will suffer irreparable injury if the Final Rule is not enjoined or stayed” until the case can be more fully heard in court.
The states argue that BLM knew it was required under the National Environmental Policy Act to conduct an analysis of the rule. They contend BLM ignored numerous objections during the public comment period last year and chose instead to rely on a so-called categorical exclusion that exempted the bureau from conducting an environmental impact statement or other study.
