## Facts

- A developer proposed the Echanis Wind Energy Project on Steens Mountain in Harney County, Oregon, including 40–69 turbines on private land.
- The project required an overhead transmission line and related facilities to cross public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
- The area includes sagebrush steppe habitat important to greater sage-grouse, a species experiencing widespread population declines.
- Because the transmission line crossed federal land, BLM prepared a Draft EIS and then a Final EIS and Record of Decision under NEPA for the transmission component and connected actions.
- BLM evaluated alternative transmission routes and selected the “North Route.”
- In assessing impacts to sage-grouse, BLM did not conduct winter-season surveys along the selected North Route corridor; it relied on winter survey information from other locations studied for turbine siting.
- Comments during the NEPA process specifically criticized the absence of winter baseline data for the selected route; later information indicated winter use at at least one surveyed area, contrary to BLM’s assumption.
- Plaintiffs also asserted concerns about inter-population/genetic connectivity among sage-grouse populations, but did not clearly present that distinct theory during the administrative comment process.

## Issues

1. Whether NEPA required BLM’s EIS to include adequate, site-specific baseline data on wintering sage-grouse along the approved North Route transmission corridor.
2. If the winter baseline analysis was deficient, whether the deficiency was harmless error.
3. Whether plaintiffs exhausted, during the NEPA process, a claim that BLM failed to analyze inter-population/genetic connectivity among sage-grouse populations.

## Decision

- The Ninth Circuit reversed the district court in part and remanded.
- The court held BLM failed to take the required “hard look” because the EIS lacked an adequate winter baseline for sage-grouse along the selected North Route.
- The court held the winter-baseline deficiency was not harmless error because it could have affected route selection, mitigation, or conditions of approval.
- The court declined to reach the inter-population/genetic connectivity claim because it was not exhausted during the administrative process.
- The court left undisturbed the judgment upholding BLM on the unexhausted connectivity theory.

## Legal Principles

- NEPA requires an agency to take a “hard look” at environmental consequences, including a meaningful description of baseline environmental conditions against which impacts are evaluated.
- An EIS must provide accurate scientific analysis sufficient to permit informed decisionmaking and informed public participation.
- When seasonal habitat use is relevant to impact assessment (e.g., wintering versus breeding use), NEPA may require season-specific baseline data for the affected area.
- An agency may not rely on non-site-specific or unsupported assumptions when information essential to a reasoned choice among alternatives is reasonably obtainable.
- NEPA errors are harmless only if the court can conclude the deficiency clearly had no bearing on the ultimate decision.
- NEPA plaintiffs must raise specific issues with sufficient clarity during the administrative process to preserve them for judicial review; general objections do not preserve distinct theories not fairly presented to the agency.

## Conclusion

The Ninth Circuit required BLM to support its NEPA analysis with adequate, site-specific winter baseline data for sage-grouse along the approved transmission corridor and held the omission was not harmless, while barring review of a separate connectivity theory that was not properly raised during the NEPA comment process.


Or. Nat. Desert Ass’n v. Jewell, 840 F.3d 562 (9th Cir. 2016)