The Federal Circuit, on remand from the U.S. Supreme Court, held that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' temporary deviations from the water release rates set forth in an operating plan for the Clearwater Dam that caused increased flooding in Arkansas' Dave Donaldson Black River Wildlife Management A...

The D.C. Circuit vacated a FERC decision allowing a power company to use a regional transmission organization's (RTO's) transmission lines in order to join another RTO network. The two RTOs involved in this case had entered a joint operating agreement that allowed both RTOs to use the other's transm...

The First Circuit reversed in part a lower court's judgment in favor of a lender in a dispute concerning environmental testing expenses associated with a foreclosure on a parcel of land following a loan default. The lender and borrower entered an environmental indemnity agreement under which the lan...

A district court dismissed residents' lawsuit against a city for allowing a metals finishing plant to use and store acids and other dangerous chemicals. The residents' only factual allegation against the city is that it zoned the property at issue as a commercial or industrial use area and allowed t...

A district court held that it would not waive the statute of limitations in a breach of contract case filed by the heirs of a cattle rancher against an oil company for contaminating the rancher's property. The suit stems from the company's oil and gas operations in the 1960s and 1970s. The statute o...

A California appellate court, in an unpublished opinion, dismissed residents' lawsuit challenging a city's decision not to prepare an environmental impact report (EIR) under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for a proposed mixed-use commercial and residential project. The residents mai...

A California court upheld the California Air Resource Board's (CARB's) authority to sell greenhouse gas allowances at auction under the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, also known as Assembly Bill 32 (AB 32). As in its tentative decision issued last August, the court ruled that the a...

The Ninth Circuit approved a settlement agreement between the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and a large number of its energy customers that sets terms for refunding customers who were previously overcharged as well as new rate terms for the next 17 years. BPA argued that the plaintiff—a gr...

The Sixth Circuit, in an unpublished opinion, denied a wildlife preserve's motion to preliminarily enjoin a mining company from constructing and operating a nickel and copper mine in Marquette, Michigan, and to compel the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to force a federal permitting request. The mining...

The Second Circuit, in a summary order, affirmed a lower court decision dismissing a property owner's lawsuit against a nearby gas station operator for contaminating the owner's shopping plaza and against a cleanup contractor for failing to detect the contamination or warn of its potential existence...