The Second Circuit held that towns in the Catskill and Delaware watershed region of the New York City drinking water system lack standing to seek review of two U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) actions concerning the implementation of the Safe Drinking Water Act. Specifically, the towns com...

The D.C. Circuit denied a petition to review the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC's) interpretation of the term "markets" as used in an amendment to the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act that created exceptions to a utility's mandatory purchase obligation to buy energy from qualifyi...

The D.C. Circuit upheld a final order issued by the Department of the Interior (DOI) requiring an energy company to retroactively recalculate royalties owed to the U.S. government under its lease to extract coalbed methane from federal land in Wyoming. In its disputed order, DOI held that the market...

The First Circuit upheld a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) order staying its issuance of an operating license to a hydroelectric facility in Maine. FERC stayed the license because the state environmental agency withdrew its Clean Water Act (CWA) §401 certification that the project c...

The Federal Circuit held that conservation groups lack standing to pursue their Endangered Species Act (ESA) §9 claim against various federal agencies and officials for failing to enforce a ban on importing endangered and threatened fish but that they may have standing to challenge the agencies...

The Fifth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision denying an environmental group's request for attorneys fees incurred during its Clean Water Act citizen suit against the city of Dallas, Texas. The group filed suit against the city in 2003. Shortly thereafter, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agenc...

The D.C. Circuit held that it lacks jurisdiction to hear an appeal regarding a dispute between a fisheries association and the U.S. Department of Commerce over whether an amendment to the fishery management plan for South Atlantic Snapper Grouper violated the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation an...

A district court denied a power company's motion to dismiss an environmental group's Clean Air Act (CAA) claim against it for maximum achievable control technology (MACT) violations and ordered the company to submit a formal MACT determination for the construction of a new 800-megawatt coal fired po...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court's judgment on the pleadings in favor of the U.S. Forest Service in a case alleging it failed to comply with Clean Water Act (CWA) §401 in its issuance of grazing permits on Forest Service lands. In Oregon Natural Desert Ass'n v. Dombeck, 172 F.3d 1092, 2...

The Ninth Circuit held that the U.S. Forest Service approved a selective logging project in the Ochoco National Forest in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The Forest Service's cumulative effects analysis in the environmental impact statement (EIS) regarding past timber sale...