The D.C. Circuit vacated a district court's grant of summary judgment to USDA's Farm Service Agency in a lawsuit concerning the agency's loan approval for a chicken farm in Maryland. An environmental group argued the EA made in connection with the loan approval violated NEPA, and that the EA should ...
A state appellate court upheld, 2-1, a certificate of need and routing permit granted by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission for replacement of a portion of the Line 3 oil pipeline. Native American tribes and environmental groups challenged the Commission's decision to grant the certificate of...
A district court denied BLM's motion to stay a challenge to a former Secretary of the Interior's order lifting a moratorium on coal leasing. States, environmental groups, and a Native American tribe had challenged the adequacy of BLM's final EA and FONSI in support of its decision to reinstate the l...
A district court granted states' motion to preliminarily enjoin the president's Executive Order pausing new oil and gas leases on public lands and in offshore waters. The states argued the "pause" violated the APA, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), and the Mineral Leasing Act (MLA). The...
A district court remanded without vacatur oil and gas lease sales approved by BLM in greater sage-grouse habitat in Montana and Wyoming. Conservation groups argued BLM violated NEPA by failing to consider their proposed alternative of deferring priority sage-grouse habitat and failing to take a "har...
A district court denied environmental groups' motion for summary judgment in a challenge to the Forest Service's approval of a road reopening project in grizzly bear habitat in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest. The groups argued the Service's approval of the project violated NEPA and the National...
A district court denied Native American tribes' motion for a permanent injunction in an ongoing dispute concerning the Dakota Access pipeline. The tribes argued they were entitled to injunctive relief because the pipeline's continued operation was likely to cause them immediate, irreparable harm via...
A district court denied environmental groups' motion to reconsider its prior decision in a lawsuit concerning DOI's renewal of mining leases for a proposed copper-nickel mine in northeastern Minnesota. The groups argued new evidence retrieved through third-party FOIA requests—communications from 2...
A district court granted summary judgment for the Forest Service and FWS in an ongoing dispute over a tree-thinning project in Shasta-Trinity National Forest. Conservation groups argued the Forest Service violated NEPA by failing to take a hard look at the project's effects and failing to prepare a ...
The First Circuit affirmed a district court's denial of a preliminary injunction in a challenge to the Army Corps of Engineers' decision to authorize construction of a segment of an electric transmission line project in Maine. Environmental groups argued the Corps' EA and FONSI violated NEPA because...