Approval for Idaho phosphate mine reversed after judge rules US didn't assess prairie bird impact
A male sage grouse struts in the early morning hours outside Baggs, Wyo., on April 22, 2015. A federal judge on Friday, June 2, 2023, yanked the U.S. government's approval for a phosphate mining project in southeastern Idaho. The decision comes five months after the judge ruled the U.S. Bureau of Land Management violated environmental laws when it approved the Caldwell Canyon Mine in 2019. Those include a failure to consider the indirect impact of processing ore at a nearby plant and the impact on sage grouse. (Dan Cepeda/The Casper Star-Tribune via AP)
By MARK THIESSEN
Associated Press
A federal judge has yanked approval for a phosphate mining project in southeastern Idaho, saying federal land managers in the Trump administration didn’t in part properly consider the mine’s impact on sage grouse, a bird species that has seen an 80% decline in population since 1965....