The Tenth Circuit affirmed denial of a preliminary injunction in a challenge to the Office of Natural Resources Revenue's (ONRR's) 2016 rule changing how royalties were calculated for oil and natural gas produced on federal land. A trade group argued the rule was arbitrary and capricious, in violati...
United States v. Apex Building Co., Inc., No. 23-cv-7838 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 5, 2023). Under a proposed consent decree, a settling TSCA defendant that conducted unlawful renovations work must perform injunctive relief and pay a $606,706 civil penalty.
EPA granted emergency exemptions under FIFRA for the use of certain pesticides to control pest outbreaks to Arizona, Hawaii, Michigan, Minnesota, and North Dakota, and denied emergency exemptions to Colorado and Nebraska.
EPA finalized several amendments to the PCB regulations, including an expanded set of extraction and determinative methods that can be used to characterize and verify the cleanup of PCBs waste; amendment of the performance-based disposal option for PCB remediation waste; removal of the provision allowing PCB bulk product waste to be disposed of as roadbed material; and the addition of more flexible provisions for cleanup and disposal of waste generated by spills that occur during emergency situations.
A district court granted in part and denied in part environmental groups' motion for summary judgment in a challenge to the Forest Service's and FWS' approval of a logging project in Kootenai National Forest. The groups argued, among other things, that the Services failed to take a "hard look" at th...
The D.C. Circuit granted in part and denied in part petitions to review a Surface Transportation Board order authorizing construction and operation of a new rail line in the Uinta Basin. Environmental groups and a Colorado county argued the Board failed to take a "hard look" at environmental impacts...
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement revised certain regulatory provisions concerning blowout preventer systems and well control for oil and gas and sulfur operations in the outer continental shelf.
A district court granted in part and denied in part environmental groups' motion for summary judgment in a challenge to BLM's 2020 decision to allow grazing in the Sonoran Desert National Monument. The groups argued the Bureau's amended resource management plan (RMP) violated FLPMA and the National ...
The Fourth Circuit granted federal agencies' and Mountain Valley Pipeline proponents' motion to dismiss challenges to agency actions that would enable final construction and initial operation of the 303-mile natural gas pipeline from West Virginia to Virginia. Environmental groups had petitioned the...
The California Supreme Court affirmed an appellate court ruling in favor of oil producers and mineral rights holders in a challenge to a county ordinance banning oil and gas wastewater injection and impoundment and drilling of new oil and gas wells. The plaintiffs argued the ordinance was preempted ...