2008-06-09_PERMIT FILE - C1980007 (6)

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5 Table 5-1 DEIS Comments and Responses Commenter Comment Comment/Response II Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action (comment received 5/9/07- after comment period, no appeal standing) NEP A and Global Warming NEPA requires project analyses to be of high quality, and requires agencies to insure the professional integrity, including scientific integrity" of those analyses. 40 CFR § 1502.24. Additionally, agencies must take a "hard look" at their actions. Muckleshoot h~dian Tribe v. United States Forest Sew., 177 F.3d 800,814 (9th Cir. 1999) (per curiam) (quoting Robe~~tson v. Methow Valley Citizens Council., 490 U.S. 332, 350,104 L. Ed. 2d 351,109 S. Ct. 1835 (1989)) internal quotation marks omitted). The USFS is also required to "describe the environment of the areas to be affected or created by the alternatives under consideration." 40 CFR § 1502.15. The establishment of the baseline conditions of the affected environment is a practical requirement of the NEPA process. Half Moon Bay Fishe~~~nan's Marketi~agAss'n v. Carlucci, 857 F.2d 505, 510 (9th Cir. 1988). In that case, the Ninth Circuit stated that "without establishing... baseline conditions... there is simply no way to determine what effect [an action] will have on the environrent, and consequently, no way to comply with NEPA." The DEIS has failed to take a hard look at the effects of the project and to accurately describe the baseline conditions with regard to atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, global warming, and other issues. NEPA requires environmental impact statements to "insure the scientific integrity" of their analyses, to contain "accurate scientific analysis," and to "provide full and fair discussion of significant enviromnental impacts." 40 C.F.R. § 1502.24, § 1500.1(B), § 1502.1. Global warming is one of the greatest challenges our civilization faces. It threatens to transform everything about our landscape, and to alter much in nature such as the timing of the rains and the modulations of the seasons-even the ocean currents tnay be altered. Moreover, global climate change impacts are occurring more rapidly than scientists anticipated even just a few years ago. A review of hundreds of research studies contends that animal and plant species have begun dying off or changing sooner than predicted because of global warming.Z~ These fast- moving adaptations have come as a surprise even to biologists and ecologists because they are occurring so rapidly. At least 70 species of frogs, mostly mountain-dwellers have gone extinct at least in part because of climate change, the analysis says. It also reports that between 100 and 200 other cold dependent animal species, such as penguins and polar bears, are in deep trouble. "We are finally seeing species going extinct," said University of Texas biologist Camille Parmesan, author of the study. "Now we've got the evidence. It's here. It's real. This is not just biologists' intuition. It's what's happening." Parmesan reports seeing trends of animal populations moving northward if they can, of species attempting to adapt to climate change, of plants blooming earlier, and of an increase in pests and parasites. The rate of publication of articles relating to the biological responses to global warming increases each year.'2 Approximately 40 percent of 866 papers published between 1899 and January 2006 dealing with climate change 192 Deer Creek Ventilation Shaft and E Seam Methane Drainage Wells FEIS