The Fifth Circuit vacated and remanded a lower court decision that imposed no penalties against an oil company for alleged CAA permit violations at its industrial complex in Baytown, Texas. An environmental group filed a CAA citizen suit against the company, alleging violations that occurred thousan...

The Ninth Circuit held that BLM’s approval of a wind-energy development project in southeastern Oregon failed to adequately address impacts to the greater sage grouse in violation of NEPA. The challenged project entails the construction of wind turbines and a right-of-way across a sagebrush landsc...

A Pennsylvania court dismissed developers' lawsuit against environmental activists and township residents for alleged tortious interference with contract with respect to a series of oil and gas leases. In an underlying suit, the activists and residents had challenged permits as well as a local ordin...

The Texas Supreme Court held that the common-law "accommodation doctrine," which gives an oil-and-gas lessee an implied right to use the land as reasonably necessary to produce and remove the minerals as long as it exercises that right with due regard for the landowner's rights, also extends to grou...

The U.S. Supreme Court held that a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers jurisdictional determination (JD) is a final agency action subject to judicial review under the APA. The case arose in connection with the permitting process for a peat mine. The mine obtained an approved JD from the Corps stating that ...

The Vermont Supreme Court affirmed a lower court decision dismissing as untimely the state's claims against a number of companies for generalized injury to state waters due to groundwater contamination from methyl tertiary butyl ether, a gasoline additive. The state's lawsuit was barred by the six-y...

A district court vacated two FWS depredation orders reauthorizing the killing of double-crested cormorants in certain states. The court previously held that FWS violated NEPA when it reissued the orders. At issue here was the remedy. FWS argued that remand without vacatur was appropriate, whereas pl...

A district court stayed further proceedings in litigation challenging EPA's "waters of the United States" (WOTUS) rule pending any further decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit or the U.S. Supreme Court. Numerous challenges throughout the country have been levied against the fi...

The Florida Supreme Court held that the state's public utility commission exceeded its statutory rate-setting authority when it allowed an electric company to use customer money to recover costs incurred investing in a shale gas operation in Oklahoma. The company asserted that its ownership interest...

Massachusetts' highest court held that the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) failed to issue regulations setting limits on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as required by Massachusetts' Global Warming Solutions Act §3(d). DEP claimed it complied with its statutory mandate by establi...