A New York court struck down a city's local ordinance that placed a two-year moratorium on hydraulic fracturing within its borders. The city argued that it issued the ordinance under its local police powers and that it was therefore not required to refer the law to the county planning board prior to...

A district court dismissed a lawsuit filed by the state of New York and several environmental groups challenging the federal government's decision not to conduct an environmental review under NEPA while the Delaware River Basin Commission drafts and considers regulations that would allow hydraulic f...

The Ninth Circuit denied petitions challenging FERC orders that retroactively reset the market rates that were charged in the California electricity markets during the state's energy crisis of 2000 and 2001. After California deregulated and restructured its electricity market in the mid-1990s, price...

A district court denied environmental groups' motion to preliminarily enjoin the construction of segments of the Keystone XL pipeline. After an oil company's original request to complete the Keystone XL pipeline was denied by President Obama in 2011, the company sought to divide its original interco...

A Pennsylvania appellate court partially struck down Act 13, which pertains to oil and gas operations in the Marcellus Shale, as unconstitutional. The Act repealed Pennsylvania’s Oil and Gas Act and replaced it with a codified statutory framework regulating oil and gas operations in the Commonweal...

The D.C. Circuit dismissed a petition challenging an EPA rule issued under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) concerning ethanol fuel. The EISA directed EPA to promulgate regulations ensuring that transportation fuel sold in the United States contains certain minimum levels of r...

The D.C. Circuit denied petitions for review challenging the NRC's decision to renew an energy company's license to operate the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station. The petitioners argued that the license renewal was unlawful because the energy company failed to furnish a state water quality ce...

A district court held that residents may add four new defendants in their lawsuit against energy companies for alleged water contamination due to hydraulic fracturing operations near their homes. During the course of discovery, the residents learned that the proposed defendants participated in t...

A Pennsylvania appellate court enjoined for 120 days the effective date of a new state law, Act 13, that authorizes municipalities to regulate the location of oil and gas operations but not the manner in which they are operated. The court reasoned that municipalities must have an adequate opport...

A New York court upheld a town's enactment of a zoning law that bans oil and gas drilling, including hydraulic fracturing, within the geographical borders of the township. The holder of two gas leases argued that §23-0303 of New York's Environmental Conservation Law preempts the zoning law. The...