The Second Circuit affirmed in part and vacated in part a lower court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the NRC in a case challenging its grant of an exemption to the Indian Point nuclear power plant from compliance with certain fire safety regulations. Environmental and citizens groups filed ...

The Federal Circuit reversed and remanded a lower court decision dismissing a developer's Fifth Amendment takings claim against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for denying its application for a CWA §404 wetlands fill permit. The property is located on a barrier island of Florida, much of which is ...

A district court, in a 114-page opinion, held that a regional planning agency violated the California Environmental Quality Act when it approved the expansion of a ski resort near Lake Tahoe. The evidence fails to support the agency's finding that a reduced alternative was not economically infeasibl...

A California appellate court affirmed a lower court decision denying a conservation group's petition seeking to vacate a city's certification of an environmental impact report (EIR) for the development of a park. The group argued that the EIR wrongly defined the project to exclude pending residentia...

The Second Circuit reversed a lower court decision that an insurance company need not indemnify a manufacturing company for environmental contamination that occurred at one of its facilities in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The insurer issued the company two excess insurance policies that had a $3...

A California appellate court affirmed a lower court decision denying a municipal water district's petition challenging a water replenishment district's "water emergency" declaration for California's Central Basin. The water district argued that the replenishment district failed to comply with the Ca...

A California appellate court reversed a lower court decision granting lumber companies' petition to delist coho salmon from the California list of endangered species. The companies' petition sought to show that there was no basis for the California Fish & Game Commission's 1995 finding that coho...

A California court held that the environmental impact report (EIR) San Diego prepared for its regional transport plan and accompanying sustainable communities strategy violates the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) because it failed to adequately address greenhouse gas emissions. The EIR i...

The California Supreme Court held that all subdivisions, including the conversion of a mobile home park from tenant occupancy to resident ownership, are "developments" for purposes of the California Coastal Act. Nor does the Subdivision Map Act exempt such conversions from the need to comply with ot...

The U.S. Supreme Court held that government-induced flooding that is temporary in duration may constitute a takings and is not automatically exempt from Takings Clause inspection. The case arose after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers extended flooding from a dam into the Dave Donaldson Black River W...