A district court, on motions for summary judgment, dismissed a lawsuit against EPA filed by a group of beekeepers, farmers, and organizations concerned about the effect of pesticide-treated seeds on bees and other pollinators. The plaintiffs argued that the practice of coating seeds with neonicotino...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision that the Hawaii Pesticides Law impliedly preempts a county ordinance that seeks to regulate pesticides and genetically engineered plants. The ordinance would have required commercial farmers to maintain “buffer zones” between crops to which pesti...

A district court, in an underlying suit concerning indemnificaton for environmental cleanup, held that a corporation's counterclaims against a bus company for fraud and negligent misrepresentation are barred by Arizona's economic loss doctrine. In 1986, the corporation sold various properties to the...

A Pennsylvania court preliminarily enjoined the commonwealth from enforcing certain Marcellus Shale drilling regulations pending the outcome of an industry group's lawsuit. The group alleged that the regulations were unreasonable, violated state law, were void for vagueness, and that the government ...

The Second Circuit upheld the federal government's 2008 decision to take approximately 13,000 acres of land in central New York into trust on behalf of the Oneida Indian Nation of New York. The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 authorizes the federal government to take land into trust on behalf of I...

The Federal Circuit affirmed in part and remanded in part a lower court decision dismissing a helium extraction company's breach of contract claims against the United States. In 1994, the parties entered a contract under which BLM gave the company the right to extract helium gas from roughly 21,000 ...

The Ninth Circuit upheld the dismissal of environmental groups' lawsuit challenging the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency's EIS for its updated land use plan. Applying a standard similar to the standard for evaluating an EIS under NEPA, the court held that the EIS and update adequately addressed the lo...

The D.C. Circuit, in an unpublished opinion, denied an environmental group's petition for review challenging FERC's approval of a proposed liquefied natural gas project in Texas. The group argued that FERC violated NEPA in its consideration of the projects’ indirect and cumulative effects. But as ...

A district court adopted a magistrate judge's recommendations and denied motions to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a group of young people against the U.S. government for failing to protect them from climate change. The plaintiffs alleged that the government has known for decades that carbon dioxide (...

The Ninth Circuit upheld a lower court decision enjoining two wildfire reduction projects in the Gallatin National Forest—the Bozeman Municipal Watershed Project and the East Boulder Project—because FWS and the U.S. Forest Service failed to adequately assess impacts on lynx critical habitat in v...