The Fourth Circuit vacated the U.S. Forest Service's decisions authorizing a natural gas pipeline to be constructed across two national forests. Environmental groups argued that the agency violated the National Forest Management Act when it determined that its amendments to the George Washington and...

A state court dismissed a lawsuit filed by a mining company challenging the Montana Department of Environmental Quality's labeling of the company's chief executive officer as a "bad actor" under state mining law, effectively prohibiting the company from conducting mining and exploration activities i...

A district court denied environmental groups' motion for summary judgment in a challenge to BLM's 2017 lease sale of more than 10 million acres in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A). The groups challenged the agency's failure to prepare an EIS or EA for the lease sale, arguing that the sa...

In an unpublished opinion, a state appellate court affirmed a lower court's ruling that a Wisconsin landowner violated state law by discharging fill material into a wetland on his property. The lower court found that the landowner had filled waters of the state without obtaining a permit, in violati...

The Arizona Supreme Court vacated a ruling that a Native American tribe sufficiently alleged standing to bring a public nuisance claim against a resort using reclaimed wastewater to make artificial snow on the San Francisco Peaks in northern Arizona. Before the lower court, the tribe argued that the...

The Federal Circuit upheld a ban on the importation from Mexico of shrimp and other seafood caught with gillnets or within the range of the critically endangered vaquita porpoise. A lower court issued a preliminary injunction requiring the Department of Commerce to ban importation of all shrimp, cur...

The Fourth Circuit vacated the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' verification that construction of a natural gas pipeline could proceed in West Virginia under the terms and conditions of CWA Nationwide Permit (NWP) 12. Environmental groups argued that the Corps improperly incorporated the state's condit...

A district court temporarily stayed proceedings in which a pipeline developer sought access to a North Carolina farm for construction of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The landowner sought to stay the pipeline developer's attempt to acquire eminent domain rights to his property to allow pending challe...

A district court vacated nationwide the Applicability Date Rule, which suspended the effect of the Clean Water Rule until February 2020 and required agencies in the interim to apply the pre-Clean Water Rule definition of "waters of the United States." Environmental groups argued that EPA and the U.S...

The Tenth Circuit dismissed Utah's challenge to a settlement agreement that requires BLM to revise motorized vehicle trails in southern Utah to minimize potential harm to wildlife, cultural, and archaeological sites. Before a district court, the state argued that the settlement agreement illegally c...