The Biden administration struck back Thursday against claims by Utah and Wyoming that implementing the Bureau of Land Management’s public lands rule will cause “irreparable environmental harm” in their states and should be blocked.
The Justice Department, in a court filing Thursday on behalf of BLM and the Interior Department, dismissed the claims in a preliminary injunction petition the states filed last month as “entirely unfounded.”
The DOJ memorandum in opposition to the injunction request notes that the rule “has been in effect for nearly two months,” and that the states “have failed to show that the Rule, particularly given its procedural nature, will result in any imminent irreparable harm to the environment or otherwise before the case could be heard on the merits.”
What’s more, because the states “only assert speculative injuries arising from future applications of the Rule,” they lack legal standing to request the court block implementation of the rule, according to the motion filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah.
