The Ninth Circuit vacated FERC orders that held the California Water Resources Control Board had waived its authority to ensure certain hydroelectric projects complied with state water quality standards. The Board and environmental groups petitioned the court to review FERC's findings that the Board...
The D.C. Circuit denied a Native American tribe's petition to review NRC's decision to grant a source material license for uranium extraction from ore beds in South Dakota. The tribe initially raised challenges to the license application and NRC's NEPA and National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) p...
A district court granted summary judgment for environmental groups in a challenge to two BLM resource management plans for coal leasing in Montana and Wyoming. The groups argued BLM violated NEPA by failing to consider a reasonable range of alternatives and failing to consider the downstream impacts...
The D.C. Circuit denied environmental groups' and township's petitions to review FERC's approval of an application for a certificate of public convenience and necessity for a proposed natural gas pipeline project in Pennsylvania and Delaware. The petitioners argued FERC violated NEPA by failing to a...
The Tenth Circuit affirmed dismissal of a challenge to FWS' 2018 decision to modify certain trails in the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge. Community groups argued the modifications were significant and that FWS failed to prepare a supplemental EIS and relied on categorical exclusions based on a...
The D.C. Circuit denied a city's second petition to review FERC's order granting a certificate of public convenience and necessity for construction of a natural gas pipeline from Ohio to Michigan. In the city's initial petition, it argued FERC had not adequately justified its reliance on agreements ...
The D.C. Circuit denied environmental groups' petition to review FERC's order approving an extension of a natural gas pipeline into North Carolina. The groups specifically challenged the order's approved return on equity rate and the adequacy of the Commission's EIS, arguing that FERC should not hav...
The Nevada Supreme Court held, 4-3, that the state's top water official had authority to approve a groundwater management plan (GMP) that deviated from the doctrine of prior appropriation for the over-appropriated Diamond Valley Hydrologic Basin. Senior rights holders in the basin sought to invalida...
The D.C. Circuit affirmed a district court's dismissal of landowners' challenge to FERC's authority to grant pipeline certificates. The landowners asked the district court to declare that Congress' delegation of authority to FERC was unconstitutional and that all past certificates were void, and sou...
The D.C. Circuit upheld FERC's approval of a dam operator's flood protection plan for a nearby water pump station in North Carolina. A city petitioned for review of FERC's approval of the plan, a state-imposed condition of its water quality certification under the CWA, which involved raising the pum...