The D.C. Circuit vacated the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR), which would have required 28 states and the District of Columbia to regulate sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) to eliminate "significant" contributions to downwind states' air po...
The Fifth Circuit upheld the dismissal of a Clean Air Act (CAA) citizen suit seeking to enjoin a power company from constructing a pulverized coal-fired power plant in the plaintiffs' community. The CAA does not authorize federal court jurisdiction to redress alleged pre-permit, preconstruction, pre...
A district court held that property owners have standing to sue a landfill operator for groundwater contamination under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act even though they sealed off their well and took other safety measures to ensure that their drinking water is free from contamination. The...
The Second Circuit affirmed a lower court decision dismissing animal rights organizations' claim that a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) depredation order authorizing certain state and federal agencies to kill double-crested cormorants violates the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA), the Nationa...
The Ninth Circuit reversed and remanded to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) its recent rule that set, inter alia, corporate average fuel economy standards for light-duty trucks, including many sport utility vehicles (SUVs). The rule is arbitrary and capricious and contrary ...
The D.C. Circuit vacated a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule preventing state and local authorities from supplementing emissions monitoring requirements for stationary sources subject to Title V of the Clean Air Act (CAA). Title V enlists EPA and state and local environmental authoriti...
The Eleventh Circuit vacated and remanded a lower court's grant of summary judgment in favor of an environmental group who challenged the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' grant of Clean Water Act (CWA) permits to mining companies allowing them to extract limestone from the “Lake Belt” area—a stre...
A district court held that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) must honor a settlement agreement it entered into with an environmental group requiring it to provide for additional public comment on the possible listing of the sage-grouse. FWS argued that the agreement was not approved by the ag...
The Ninth Circuit upheld an individual's conviction and sentence for unlawfully importing R-12 freon, an ozone-depleting substance. The individual was properly convicted for violating 40 C.F.R. §82.4, a regulation promulgated under the Clean Air Act (CAA) that prohibits the importation of “Class ...
The Tenth Circuit held that the U.S. Forest Service did not act in an arbitrary and capricious manner when it made a finding of no significant impact for timber harvesting and prescribed burning in Utah's Dixie National Forest. Although the application of magnesium chloride to forest roads for dust ...