The Tenth Circuit affirmed dismissal of a lawsuit concerning a long-running water dispute between an Indian tribe and a private landowner in Utah. The tribe sued the landowner in tribal court, arguing the landowner had been diverting the tribe's water for years. The tribal court held it had subject ...
The Eleventh Circuit vacated a district court's dismissal of a challenge to a developer's filling of a wetland near its hotel in southeastern Georgia. An individual and environmental groups argued the developer did not comply with the CWA's permitting process because it filled the wetland for the pu...
A district court denied two former EPA science advisors’ motion to preliminarily halt the activities of the Agency’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee. The advisors argued the committee violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act’s requirement that memberships be “fairly balanced” be...
A district court dismissed environmental groups’ challenge to the International Development Finance Corp’s (DFC’s) 2020 rule exempting itself from the Sunshine Act. The groups challenged the rule under the APA and the Sunshine Act itself, and sought an order declaring the DFC subject to the Su...
The D.C. Circuit remanded FERC orders rejecting an Oklahoma city's complaint that a hydroelectric dam overseen by the Commission caused periodic flooding. The city argued that the dam operator violated Article 5 of its license, which FERC had issued under the Federal Power Act, and sought to require...
The D.C. Circuit remanded DOE's 2020 rule that set more stringent energy efficiency standards than those of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers for commercial packaged boilers. Industry groups argued, among other things, that the Department inflated the econ...
A district court dismissed as moot a lawsuit seeking to reinstate a permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline to cross the U.S.-Canada border. Twenty-three states challenged the president's authority to revoke the permit, arguing the permitting decision concerned only international and interstate comm...
A district court granted summary judgment for the Bureau of Reclamation in a FOIA lawsuit brought by a company seeking summaries of certain water transfers. The company requested a summary of transfers taking place in 2020 under the Bureau's and San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority's Long-Te...
The Second Circuit reversed in part and vacated in part a district court ruling that ordered EPA to disclose records pursuant to a FOIA request related to a former Agency official's role in pesticide policymaking. An environmental group submitted FOIA requests for the records, and EPA invoked the de...
A district court granted in part and denied in part NMFS' motion to dismiss a lawsuit seeking an expansion of the Service's 2008 Vessel Speed Rule to protect North Atlantic right whales. Conservation groups argued NMFS had unreasonably delayed its response to the groups' 2012 and 2020 petitions to e...