Northern Cheyenne Tribe v. Norton

Opinion by Judge KLEINFELD; Dissent by Chief Judge SCHROEDER.

KLEINFELD, Circuit Judge:

This appeal challenges an injunction limiting but not entirely prohibiting coal bed methane development while the Bureau of Land Management expands an environmental impact statement.1

Facts

The Powder River Basin in Montana and Wyoming is the largest coal deposit in the United States and among the largest in the world. For over a century, it has been developed into ranches, farms, and coal mines. Farmers and ranchers generally have surface rights to the land involved in this case, but not hell-to-heaven…