## Facts

- The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), within the U.S. Department of the Interior, approved four utility-scale solar-energy development projects on federal lands in California tied to clean and renewable energy goals.
- The approved project areas included habitat used by a Mojave Desert population of desert tortoise, a species listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
- By the time suit was filed, two of the four solar projects had already been constructed, and construction of the remaining two was planned.
- Defenders of Wildlife and other conservation plaintiffs sued federal officials, including the Secretary of the Interior, challenging the federal approvals and seeking a preliminary injunction to stop construction activities for the remaining projects.
- Plaintiffs argued that the desert tortoise population had a “continuous distribution genetic structure,” making habitat and population connectivity important to the species, and that large solar facilities would fragment habitat and disrupt gene flow and recovery.
- Defendants opposed emergency relief, arguing that the agencies had considered the tortoise and connectivity concerns during review and consultation and that plaintiffs had not met the requirements for preliminary injunctive relief.

## Issues

1. Whether plaintiffs were entitled to a preliminary injunction stopping construction of the remaining BLM-approved solar projects based on alleged ESA and APA violations tied to habitat fragmentation and connectivity effects on the threatened desert tortoise.
2. Whether, under the preliminary-injunction standard, plaintiffs made a sufficient showing of likely success on the merits and likely irreparable harm, considering the agencies’ scientific analysis and the competing public interests in renewable-energy development.

## Decision

- The court denied plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction.
- The court found plaintiffs had not made the required showing, at this stage, that they were likely to succeed on the merits of their ESA/APA challenges to the agencies’ treatment of desert tortoise connectivity and related effects.
- The court also concluded that the Winter factors, considered together—including the requested relief’s impact on approved renewable-energy projects—did not justify halting construction on the remaining projects on the preliminary record.

## Legal Principles

- A preliminary injunction is an extraordinary remedy; the moving party must make a clear showing of (1) likely success on the merits, (2) likely irreparable harm without relief, (3) that the balance of equities favors relief, and (4) that an injunction is in the public interest. (Winter standard.)
- In ESA-related challenges to agency decisionmaking reviewed under the APA, a court evaluates whether the agency action was arbitrary or capricious, including whether the agency examined the relevant data and explained its conclusions.
- The ESA requires agencies to use the “best scientific and commercial data available”; it does not require complete certainty, but it does require reasoned consideration of the available science.
- When an agency’s analysis rests on scientific judgments within the agency’s delegated role, courts generally do not substitute their own views for the agency’s technical determinations absent a clear deficiency in the agency’s reasoning or record support.
- Even where environmental harms are alleged, preliminary relief must be supported by a record showing that the claimed harms are likely and that the requested injunction is warranted after weighing equities and public interests.

## Conclusion

Defenders of Wildlife v. Jewell, 2014 WL 1364452 (C.D. Cal. 2014), denied a request to preliminarily enjoin construction of two remaining BLM-approved solar projects on federal lands that included threatened desert tortoise habitat, holding that plaintiffs had not met the Winter requirements on the preliminary record for their ESA/APA claims focused on habitat connectivity and fragmentation.


Defenders of Wildlife v. Jewell, 2014 WL 1364452 (2014)