In an unpublished opinion, the D.C. Circuit dismissed an environmental group's petition to review FERC's issuance of a certificate of public convenience and necessity authorizing construction of a gas pipeline. The group challenged the Commission's failure to explain why an alternative option to bui...

A district court denied EPA's motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by several states alleging that the Agency failed to implement and enforce its 2016 Emission Guidelines and Compliance Times for Municipal Solid Waste Landfills. The Agency argued that the CAA did not unequivocally waive sovereign imm...

A district court granted in part and denied in part a pipeline company's motion to amend the court's previous order temporarily enjoining the company from constructing a cross-border oil pipeline known as Keystone XL. The company sought clarification of the injunction to ensure that it could continu...

The Fourth Circuit vacated the U.S. Forest Service's decisions authorizing a natural gas pipeline to be constructed across two national forests. Environmental groups argued that the agency violated the National Forest Management Act when it determined that its amendments to the George Washington and...

A state court dismissed a lawsuit filed by a mining company challenging the Montana Department of Environmental Quality's labeling of the company's chief executive officer as a "bad actor" under state mining law, effectively prohibiting the company from conducting mining and exploration activities i...

A district court denied environmental groups' motion for summary judgment in a challenge to BLM's 2017 lease sale of more than 10 million acres in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A). The groups challenged the agency's failure to prepare an EIS or EA for the lease sale, arguing that the sa...

In an unpublished opinion, a state appellate court affirmed a lower court's ruling that a Wisconsin landowner violated state law by discharging fill material into a wetland on his property. The lower court found that the landowner had filled waters of the state without obtaining a permit, in violati...

The Arizona Supreme Court vacated a ruling that a Native American tribe sufficiently alleged standing to bring a public nuisance claim against a resort using reclaimed wastewater to make artificial snow on the San Francisco Peaks in northern Arizona. Before the lower court, the tribe argued that the...

The Federal Circuit upheld a ban on the importation from Mexico of shrimp and other seafood caught with gillnets or within the range of the critically endangered vaquita porpoise. A lower court issued a preliminary injunction requiring the Department of Commerce to ban importation of all shrimp, cur...

The Fourth Circuit vacated the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' verification that construction of a natural gas pipeline could proceed in West Virginia under the terms and conditions of CWA Nationwide Permit (NWP) 12. Environmental groups argued that the Corps improperly incorporated the state's condit...