A district court held that the Bureau of Reclamation (Bureau) did not violate NEPA when it decided to proceed with a water supply project. In 2002, the Province of Manitoba sued under NEPA to prevent the Bureau from proceeding with the Northwest Area Water Supply Project (NAWS), arguing that an Apri...

The Tenth Circuit held that a Wyoming law that imposed civil and criminal liability on those who cross private property to access adjacent land to collect resource data violates the First Amendment. In 2015, Wyoming enacted a pair of statutes that prohibited individuals from entering “open land fo...

A district court denied EPA's request to amend a 2012 consent decree obligating the Agency to approve state regional haze plans. In 2011, environmental groups sued the Agency to compel it to take action on nine states' regional haze plans. Under a consent decree, EPA was given until September 9, 201...

The Ninth Circuit upheld a 2014 EPA settlement that required the Agency to set a phased schedule for it to issue air quality designations as required by a 2010 sulfur dioxide NAAQS. In 2013, when EPA missed the statutory deadline to issue its designations under the CAA, environmental groups sued to ...

The court holds that a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) decision to grant a permit for an off-road vehicle (ORV) race across the California Desert Conservation Area (CDCA) does not violate the Federal Land Policy Management Act’s (FLPMA’s) requirements of nondegradation of a wilderness study area...

A district court held that an industrial chemical company is not liable for fines for refusing to comply with an administrative order under CERCLA. In an previous decision, the company was found jointly and severally liable for the release of dioxin at the Centredale Manor Restoration Project Superf...

A district court held that a natural gas company can seek contribution from the federal government for uranium contamination cleanup under CERCLA. The company filed suit against the federal government for contribution for costs incurred cleaning up 19 former uranium mines on a Navajo reservation as ...

The D.C. Circuit denied a environmental group's petition to review a FERC decision allowing the transport of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Freeport Terminal in Texas. In 2011, an energy company requested permission for daily exports of LNG out of Freeport. FERC granted the application, findin...

A district court halted the expansion of a Montana coal mine approved by the Surface Mining Enforcement Office for violations of NEPA. In 2008, a coal company requested approval of a mine expansion in the Bull Mountains to extract coal owned by the federal government. In 2011, BLM prepared an EA to ...

The D.C. Circuit held that carbon emissions from gas-burning power plants should have been considered in federal regulators’ review of a Florida natural gas pipeline. Environmental groups and landowners challenged a FERC decision to approve the construction and operation of three new interstate na...