Sierra Club v. Peterson
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
717 F.2d 1409 (1983)
The Forest Service (defendant) issued oil and gas leases on 247,000 acres of environmentally sensitive land in Idaho and Wyoming without preparing an environmental impact statement (EIS), relying instead on an environmental assessment (EA) finding no significant impact; roughly 80% of the leases included a No Surface Occupancy (NSO) Stipulation barring surface-disturbing activity without Forest Service approval, but the remaining leases without that stipulation, while requiring additional paperwork before exploratory drilling, were not otherwise barred from surface-disturbing activity short of drilling. The Sierra Club (plaintiff) challenged the leasing decision, and the district court granted the Forest Service summary judgment; Sierra Club appealed only as to the non-NSO-Stipulation leases.
Whether the National Environmental Policy Act requires federal agencies to issue an Environmental Impact Statement to determine whether there will be any significant impact on the environment prior to any proposed action.