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A thread re legal challenges available to $NAK @PebbleProject in an appeal from District Engineer Delarosa
First, here’s the applicable standard for reviewing a District Engineer’s Decision:
First, here’s the applicable standard for reviewing a District Engineer’s Decision:
Based on the squeaky clean FEIS and the unprecedented weaponization of “compensatory mitigation” by @USACEHQ and @AlaskaCorps, there are AT LEAST three points of appeal here, each with multiple sub parts:
The first 2 points are fairly obvious, and I will discuss them later in this thread. (In a nutshell, the ROD has ZERO support from the FEIS and is arbitrary/capricious considering District precedent, i.e., Ambler, ASAP, GMT-2, Donlin, GMT-1, Point Thomson.)
But right now, my favorite point is No. 3–the @AlaskaCorps blatant disregard for the Executive Orders issued by @realDonaldTrump. This is also the most novel, but it goes a little something like this...
The ROD was “plainly contrary to *** an Executive Order,” specifically, EO 13953. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/10/05/2020-22064/addressing-the-threat-to-the-domestic-supply-chain-from-reliance-on-critical-minerals-from-foreign
Although the EO did several lovely things that do not technically apply here, it expressly required the Corps to use the LEAST RESTRICTIVE MEANS necessary to accelerate the issuance of a permit.
Specifically, Section 5 required the @SecArmy (and all related agencies) to “use all available authorities to accelerate the issuance of permits.” (E.O. § 5.)
Put differently, the EO mandated Delarosa to drop compensatory mitigation if it stood in the way of @PebbleProject.
Put differently, the EO mandated Delarosa to drop compensatory mitigation if it stood in the way of @PebbleProject.
After all, “[c]ompensatory mitigation is required only to the extent that it is appropriate and practicable.” (2018 MOA, 3.) The guidelines give “inherent flexibility” for “projects in Alaska,” given the “unique climatological and physiographic circumstances found in Alaska.”
We interrupt this thread to bring you a very bland slide from $NAK leadership.
