Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Transportation

Natural Resources Defense Council, East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, and Coalition for a Safe Environment (collectively “NRDC”) appeal the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the U.S. Department of Transportation and other federal and state defendants (collectively “Defendants”). NRDC argues that Defendants violated ‘ the federal Clean Air Act (“CAA”) and the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) by failing to properly evaluate and disclose the potential environmental impact of a planned expressway connecting the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to the 1-405 freeway. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment to Defendants.

I.

The Port of Los Angeles is our nation’s busiest container port. 1 Considered together with the adjacent Port of Long Beach, this port complex is among the ten busiest in the world, and it accounts for roughly forty percent of all waterborne cargo that enters the United States. Bill Sharpsteen, The Docks 53-54 (2011). The port’s cargo volume is projected to continue rising for decades.

Although the ports are an economic boon for the Los…