ASHEVILLE
Targets for timber sued
A new lawsuit alleges the U.S. Forest Service’s practice of setting ‘timber targets’ puts the climate at risk, undermines the Biden administration’s important climate goals, and violates federal law.
The Southern Environmental Law Center filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of two conservation groups, the Chattooga Conservancy and MountainTrue – which has an office in downtown Murphy – as well as an individual in Missouri, according to a release.
The case centers around the Forest Service’s failure to properly study the massive environmental and climate impacts of its timber targets and the logging projects it designs to fulfill them. Each year, the Forest Service and Department of Agriculture set timber targets, which the Forest Service is required to meet through logging on public lands.
In recent years, the national target has been set as high as 4 billion board feet – or enough lumber to circle the globe more than 30 times. The already high target is expected to increase in the coming year; however, despite their significant and long-lasting impacts on our climate and forests, the Forest Service has never assessed or disclosed the climate consequences of its timber target decisions.
Details: Visit mountaintrue.org.
RALEIGH
HCA suit to proceed
State Treasurer Dale Folwell said he was pleased with last week’s decision by Chief U.S. District Judge Martin Reidinger allowing a lawsuit to proceed against HCA Healthcare Inc. on allegations that the health-care giant engaged in anti-competitive activity in western North Carolina after its acquisition of Mission Health in 2019.
Reidinger ruled against ANC Healthcare Inc. and Mission Hospital Inc., denying their motion to dismiss the federal antitrust litigation against them. Their motion had sought to end the case almost at its beginning.
However, the key legal requirement for a case to survive a motion to dismiss is not that it be proven without any doubt but that the plaintiffs’ complaint states enough facts to establish the plausibility of the defendants’ wrongful actions. Reidinger’s decision recounted applicable facts that did just that.
“I’m pleased with the court’s decision,” Folwell said in a release. “The people of western North Carolina need to have their day in court.”
From staff reports.