A district court held that the federal government must answer claims that it is liable for the cleanup of World War II-era hazardous waste from 12 oil refineries in seven states. Property owners brought a contribution claim against the U.S. government under CERCLA, claiming that the government exerc...

The Sixth Circuit held that the state of Ohio did not properly analyze the environmental harm of an eight-mile stretch of the Nexus natural gas pipeline or consider alternative routes to avoid the City of Green. The pipeline would run through a wetland that the city claimed would be irreparably harm...

A California appellate court held that a project to modify an oil refinery so it can unload the equivalent of 150,000 barrels of crude oil per day should not proceed until corrections can be made to its state environmental impact report (EIR). The project proposed transporting crude oil from the Bak...

A district court held that a Forest Service fire salvage restoration project could proceed despite its risk to protected species. The Cedar Fire began on August 16, 2016, and burned for three weeks over 29,000 acres of mixed conifer and white fir forest, most of which were in the Sequoia National Fo...

The Ninth Circuit reversed a lower court's grant of an injunction to halt a logging project in Oregon. A conservation group brought a citizen suit under the ESA challenging a logging project it claimed would result in the taking of the marbled murrelet, a seabird listed as a threatened species. The ...

A California appellate court held that three paint companies will have to reimburse the state for the cost of stripping lead paint from the interior of thousands of houses in San Francisco and nine other cities and counties. The state claimed the companies sold and advertised lead paint for resident...

A district court held that a lawsuit challenging the Keystone XL pipeline can continue despite calls from the federal government to dismiss the case. On April 4, 2017, the State Department approved a presidential permit for the pipeline. In its approval, the State Department relied on a 2014 EIS con...

The court affirms a district court denial of a chemical company's request for reimbursement from the United States for costs it incurred in cleaning up part of a polluted ravine. At least 80 drums of the company's waste were dumped in the ravine in 1976. When the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency...

The court holds that an arbitration award under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) requiring a pesticide company to compensate a prior registrant for the use of its data is judicially enforceable. Instead of submitting its own data to support its registration application...

The court holds that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife's (FWS') final biological opinion (BO) for the U.S. Army's continued operations at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, which concluded in a finding of no jeopardy to the endangered water umbel and willow flycatcher, is arbitrary and capricious and in violation of ...