NEW MEXICO EX REL. RICHARDSON v. BLM

Nos. 06-2352, 06-2353, 06-2354.

565 F.3d 683 (2009)

State of NEW MEXICO ex rel. Bill RICHARDSON, Governor, Gary King, Attorney General, New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, New Mexico Environment Department, and Katherine Slick, New Mexico State Historic Preservation Officer; New Mexico Wilderness Alliance; Wilderness Society; Sierra Club; Natural Resources Defense Council; National Wildlife Federation; Southwest Environmental Center; Forest Guardians; New Mexico Wildlife Federation, Plaintiffs-Appellees-Cross-Appellants, v. BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT; Mike Pool, Director, Bureau of Land Management; Linda Rundell, New Mexico State Director, Bureau of Land Management; Benjamin N. Tuggle, in his Official Capacity as the Regional Director, Region 2, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Rowan W. Gould, in his official capacity as the Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; United States Fish and Wildlife Service; Ken Salazar, in his official capacity as Secretary of the Interior; United States Department of the Interior, Defendants-Cross-Appellees, and Independent Petroleum Association of New Mexico, Intervenor-Defendant-Appellant-Cross-Appellee.

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

April 28, 2009.


Attorney(s) appearing for the Case

Ronald Walter Opsahl (William Perry Pendley with him on the briefs), Mountain States Legal Foundation, Lakewood, CO, for the Intervenor-Defendant-Appellant-Cross-Appellee.

Alletta Belin, Belin & Sugarman, Santa Fe, New Mexico (Stephen F. Farris and Judith Ann Moore, Office of the Attorney General, State of New Mexico with them on the briefs) and James Angell (Andrea L. Zaccardi with him on the briefs), Earthjustice, Denver, CO, for Plaintiffs-Appellees-Cross-Appellants State of New Mexico, et al.

Elizabeth Peterson (Arthur Arguedas, Office of the Solicitor, U.S. Department of the Interior and Ronald J. Tenpas, Assistant Attorney General, Andrew A. Smith, Aaron P. Avila, and Andrew C. Mergen with her on the briefs), U.S. Department of Justice, Environment & Natural Resources Division, Washington, D.C., for Defendants-Cross-Appellees Bureau of Land Management, et al.

Before LUCERO, ANDERSON, and O'BRIEN, Circuit Judges.


LUCERO, Circuit Judge.

This litigation concerns the environmental fate of New Mexico's Otero Mesa, the largest publicly-owned expanse of undisturbed Chihuahuan Desert grassland in the United States. From 1998 to 2004, the Bureau of Land Management ("BLM" or "the Agency") conducted a large-scale land management planning process for federal fluid minerals development in Sierra and Otero Counties, where the Mesa is located. Ultimately, the Agency opened the majority...

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