The Tenth Circuit dismissed a challenge to a DOI rule governing hydraulic fracturing on federal and tribal lands, overturning a lower court ruling. In 2015, BLM finalized a fracking regulation that imposed new well construction, testing requirements, and chemical disclosure requirements, and increas...

The Washington state Shorelines Hearing Board denied plans to build a methanol refinery on the Columbia River because the plans failed to adequately consider greenhouse gas emissions. A manufacturing company proposed to manufacture methanol from natural gas supplied by a lateral pipeline, with the m...

A district court ordered EPA to issue infrastructure requirements for the 2012 fine particulate matter NAAQS for five states within 90 days. In 2015, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island missed their deadlines to present compliance plans for the 2012 fine p...

The court affirms a district court decision denying two motions filed by an environmental group to preliminarily enjoin the Florida Department of Transportation from dredging and filling land under a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' permit in order to construct a highway. The court first holds that it ...

The Federal Highway Administration (FHwA) is enjoined from proceeding with construction of the Darien Gap Highway through Panama and Columbia pending full compliance with the requirements of NEPA. The environmental impact assessment prepared by FHwA clearly does not meet the statutory requirements. ...

The Sixth Circuit held that residents of Flint, Michigan, may pursue class claims against state actors in state court. In January 2016, several plaintiffs filed a class-action lawsuit in state court stemming from the Flint water crisis. In April 2016, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality...

The Ninth Circuit held that a trial court did not err in not allowing evidence of the defendant's diminished mental capacity in a case involving a criminal conviction under RCRA. The defendant was sentenced to 46 months in prison for storing more than 3,000 containers of paint and paint-related mate...

A district court ruled that a manufacturing company will not be required to conduct further investigation of contamination that is already subject to a remediation agreement. In 2010, a consent agreement between the manufacturing company and a golf course owner obligated the company to perform remed...

A district court ruled that passive migration of benzene from a former steel mill to an adjoining shipyard does not make the owners liable for a "disposal" under CERCLA. The plaintiff's shipyard contained a "graving dock," which is used for the "repair or scrapping of ships under dry conditions." Th...

The Tenth Circuit held that BLM's approval of coal leases in the Wyoming Powder River Basin violated NEPA. In its 2010 EIS for the leases, BLM concluded that there was no appreciable difference between the United States’ total carbon dioxide emissions under its preferred alternative and the no-act...