The Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional portions of a 2012 law governing oil and gas operations in the Marcellus Shale. This is the second time the law, known as Act 13, has been reviewed by the court: in 2013, the court struck down provisions that limited the zoning powers of...

A district court dismissed environmental and animal rights groups' lawsuit against EPA for failing to respond to a 2009 petition for rulemaking that asked the Agency to regulate concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) as a source of air pollution under the CAA. The groups argued EPA violated ...

The Supreme Court of California held that the state's moratorium on the use of suction dredges to mine gold from rivers was not preempted by federal mining law. The case arose after an individual challenged his conviction for the possession and unpermitted use of a suction dredge. He argued that the...

The Fifth Circuit reversed a lower court decision that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must bear all the costs of deauthorizing the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet (MR-GO), instead holding that the Corps' cost-sharing formula with the state of Louisiana was reasonable. The Corps has completed buildin...

The D.C. Circuit, in a 162-page opinion, granted in part and denied in part petitions challenging three EPA rules setting NESHAPs for industrial, commercial, and institutional boilers and commercial and industrial solid waste incinerator (CISWI) units. The petitioners brought approximately 30 challe...

The D.C. Circuit upheld EPA's compliance deadlines for states to meet the NAAQS for fine particulate matter (PM2.5). The court previously had ruled that the framework EPA had been applying to PM2.5 was incorrect, and ordered the Agency to apply a stricter statutory framework. EPA then promulgated th...

The Supreme Court of California held that the state may enter and conduct environmental and geological studies and testing on more than 150 privately owned properties in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta that the state might seek to acquire for construction of two new tunnels to deliver fresh water f...

The Fifth Circuit, in an unpublished opinion, directed the Louisiana Supreme Court to define the meaning of "good faith" as it pertains to an underlying whistleblower suit. A deckhand working for a tugboat company alleged he was repeatedly ordered to dump oil and otherwise violate environmental laws...

The Fifth Circuit stayed EPA's regional haze plan for Oklahoma and Texas until the underlying petitions for review challenging the rule are resolved. Texas, energy companies, power plants, and others challenged EPA's action disapproving Oklahoma's and Texas' plans and imposing its own plans instead....

A New Jersey appellate court affirmed a lower court decision that dismissed as untimely shop owners' lawsuit against a town for injuries they allegedly suffered due to chemical vapors emanating from leaking USTs. Although the USTs belonged to the dry cleaner next door to the plaintiffs' shop, the ta...