A New York court upheld a town's zoning amendment that bans hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking) within its jurisdiction. The zoning amendment was enacted in response to a petition from town residents concerned about hydrofracking's impact on ground and surface water supplies. An energy company ...
The U.S. Supreme Court reversed a state court decision that Montana may charge rent from an electric company that owns dams on the Missouri, Madison, and Clark Fork rivers. The Montana Supreme Court held that title to the riverbeds passed to Montana when it became a state in 1889 and awarded alm...
The D.C. Circuit held that a city has standing to challenge a railroad company's sale of a historic elevated railroad embankment to developers. The city argued that the sale was void because the company failed to obtain approval from the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to abandon the property...
A district court remanded to state court landowners' claims for damages caused by defendants' alleged disposal of hazardous materials on their property. The landowners originally filed the suit in state court, but the defendants removed the case to federal court, arguing that the case involves a...
A California appellate court reversed a lower court decision upholding a county's adoption of an oak woodland management plan and mitigation fee program without preparing an environmental impact report (EIR) under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The county issued a negative decl...
A New York trial court held that the state environmental agency's general permit for stormwater discharges from municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4) violates the CWA and state law. By allowing discharges based on an applicant's notice of intent (NOI) to discharge, the permitting scheme c...
The Second Circuit vacated a preliminary injunction enjoining residents from the Lago Agrio region of the Ecuadorian Amazon from enforcing a multibillion dollar judgment awarded by an Ecuadorian court against an oil company for environmental pollution. Below, the court ruled that absent a preliminar...
The Federal Circuit vacated and remanded a lower court decision dismissing Native American tribes' claim that the government unlawfully converted oil and gas leases on a reservation from one type of lease to another. The lower court dismissed the claims on statute of limitations grounds. The tri...
A California appellate court upheld a lower court decision dismissing a petition to compel the state's parks and recreation department to ban off-highway vehicle recreation on certain leased portions of the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreational Area. It is too late to review the 1982 coastal...
A district court denied a corporation's motion to freeze the assets of Ecuadorian plaintiffs and to prevent them from collecting the proceeds of a multibillion dollar judgment in an underlying case involving environmental contamination in the Amazon rainforest. The corporation filed its motion f...