The Seventh Circuit denied an environmental group's petition to review EPA's approval of the ozone SIP and maintenance plan for the St. Louis metropolitan area. The court rejected the petitioner's argument that the area's maintenance plan was deficient. An area need not use photochemical grid modeli...

The Ninth Circuit held that grass residue remaining after harvesting Kentucky bluegrass is not solid waste under RCRA and that the Act does not prohibit growers' general practice of open burning. The court rejected a citizens group's argument that open burning is the discarding of waste. The group f...

The Eleventh Circuit held that the National Park Service (NPS) violated §113(c) of the Wilderness Act when it ran tourist vans through Cumberland Island, Georgia. Section 113(c) bars motor vehicles in wilderness areas except as necessary to administer the area for purposes of the Act, and offer...

The D.C. Circuit denied petitions to review EPA's decision to include an industrial site bordering the Hudson River on the NPL. EPA's decision was reasonable and supported by the record, and the companies challenging the listing were given sufficient notice of the inclusion. EPA's listing properly i...

The Second Circuit denied an advocacy group's petition to review EPA's approval of a state SIP for attaining NAAQS for ozone by the applicable attainment date, holding that the plan did not violate the CAA or EPA regulations. EPA properly used the weight-of-evidence analysis to address uncertainties...

The Second Circuit held that CAA §304(a)(3) allows citizens to challenge a state determination that a prospective source of air pollution was not a major emitting facility and to bring suit to enjoin construction of the facility. The existence of potentially overlapping enforcement mechanisms d...

The U.S. Supreme Court held that an environmental group could not sue the BLM under APA §706(1) for failure to act to protect public lands from environmental damage caused by off-road vehicles (ORVs) because although FLPMA §1782(c) is mandatory as to the object to be achieved, it leaves th...

The Eleventh Circuit held that EPA acted arbitrarily and capriciously in failing to object to a state preconstruction permit for a new "power block" at a Georgia power plant. Georgia's preconstruction permit rule prohibits the state from granting permits to applicants that own or operate noncomplian...

The court holds that trucking companies lacked standing to challenge the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) refusal to reconsider Clean Air Act emissions limits for 2004 for nitrous oxide and nonmethane hydrocarbon emissions from heavy heavy-duty diesel engines (HHDDE). The companies arg...

The court holds that §113(h) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) does not bar a company's claim that the unilateral administrative order regime of CERCLA §§106, 107(c)(3), and 113(h) violates the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendme...