The D.C. Circuit denied an environmental group's petition for review challenging FERC's decision to issue a natural gas pipeline operator a certificate of public convenience and necessity to extend a natural gas pipeline in Maryland. The group argued that FERC's issuance of the conditional certifica...
A California court issued a temporary restraining order preventing the state water board from enforcing "curtailment letters" it sent to four irrigation districts in the Central Valley. The letters ordered the districts and various farmers and businesses to stop diverting water from California's riv...
The Third Circuit upheld EPA's TMDL plan for the Chesapeake Bay against challenges from farmer and home building groups. The TMDL—the largest ever developed by EPA—identifies necessary pollution reductions of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment across Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, V...
The Ninth Circuit granted in part and denied in part a petition challenging an NPDES permit authorizing oil and gas exploration facilities' discharge of 13 waste streams into the Beaufort Sea. The petition was filed by the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission, which represents Alaska Native villages tha...
A district court dismissed environmental groups' CWA citizen suit against EPA for failing to respond in writing to their administrative petition seeking withdrawal of West Virginia's NPDES permit program, but held that the groups may go forward with their claim that the Agency's failure to timely re...
The Eighth Circuit held that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did not abuse its discretion when it revoked homeowners' permits to maintain a boat dock and stone steps on the public land between their property and a lake. The Corps revoked the permits after the homeowners sprayed herbicide and mowed ...
The Ninth Circuit upheld the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement's (BSEE's) approval of oil spill response plans for an oil company's leases in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas on Alaska's Arctic coast. Several environmental groups claimed that BSEE's approval was arbitrary and capricious un...
Georgia's highest court held that the state's 25-foot buffer zone for development projects along state waters does not apply to wetlands. The applicable statute does not require a buffer for state waters alongside banks without "wrested vegetation." The language at issue states, in pertinent part: "...
The Tenth Circuit held the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did not violate NEPA, the CWA, or nationwide permit (NWP) 12 when it allowed an energy company to build a 485-mile oil pipeline from Oklahoma to Texas under the general permit. The pipeline, part of a larger network of pipelines to transport oi...
The D.C. Circuit held that energy companies lack standing to challenge EPA's determination that carbon dioxide (CO2) streams injected into Class VI wells for the purpose of geologic sequestration constitute "solid waste" subject to RCRA. Class VI wells are designated to receive CO2 streams generated...