A district court ruled that it had subject matter jurisdiction over the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) alleged failure to promulgate standards governing water intake structures at certain existing offshore oil and gas extraction facilities, and certified its ruling to the courts ...

The court reinstates a number of claims the U.S. government filed against a mining company in connection with its vermiculite operation in Libby, Montana, that were dismissed by a lower court. The company was indicted for knowingly conspiring to release asbestos into the ambient air, thereby knowing...

The court dismisses the state of California's nuisance claim against automakers for contributing to climate change. The state sought to hold each automaker jointly and severally liable for creating, contributing to, and maintaining a public nuisance under federal and/or state law. The complaint, how...

A district court denied the U.S.' motion to dismiss a Native American tribe's Comprehensive Environmental Respose, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) claims for natural resource damage assessment costs in connection with the government's release of radionuclides and other hazardous substances ...

The Ninth Circuit upheld an injunction limiting, but not entirely prohibiting, coal-bed methane development in the Powder River Basin of Montana and Wyoming while the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) expands its environmental impact statement (EIS) for the project. The lower court concluded that alth...

A district court ruled that states have the authority to adopt California's more stringent tailpipe laws that control greenhouse gases (GHGs) from cars. Clean Air Act (CAA) §209(a) preempts states from adopting their own motor vehicle emission control standards. However, CAA §209(b) requir...

A district court upheld the No Surprises Rule and the Permit Revocation Rule, promulgated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Both rules concern incidental take permits (ITPs) made available to landowne...

A district court held that the United States is an "owner" of the Midnite Mine Superfund site, a former open-pit uranium mine located on a Native American reservation in Washington State. The United States filed a cleanup action against several mining companies under the Comprehensive Environmental ...

The Seventh Circuit denied a petition to review a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Environmental Appeals Board decision denying an environmental group's claims that the Agency violated the Clean Air Act's best available control technology (BACT) requirement and the ozone national ambient a...

The Fifth Circuit upheld a lower court's interlocutory judgment in favor of a property owner that brought suit against a railroad company for soil contamination. The owner, believing that the contamination occurred during the railroad company's former operations on the property, filed suit under Res...