The D.C. Circuit upheld four EPA rulemakings governing greenhouse gases. EPA issued the rules following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, 549 U.S. 497 (2007), in which the Court clarified that greenhouse gases meet the definition of an air pollutant under the CAA. Petit...
A New York court dismissed individuals' lawsuit challenging the legality of New York's participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a regional cap-and-trade plan for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The individuals claimed they had standing because, as electric utility ratepaye...
A California appellate court held that the California Air Resources Board's (CARB's) climate change scoping plan, designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, complies with the state's Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. The Global Solutions Warming Act requires CARB to ...
The U.S. Supreme Court overturned an $18 million fine imposed against a pipeline operator for storing liquid mercury at one of its facilities without a permit in violation of RCRA. In Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, the Court held that the Sixth Amendment's jury-trial guarantee requires th...
A district court dismissed environmental groups' complaint against two railroad companies alleging that diesel particulate matter (DPM) emitted by diesel-engine locomotives, trucks, and other equipment has caused and is causing an imminent and substantial risk to human health and the environment...
The D.C. Circuit held unripe an oil and natural gas association's petition for review challenging a 2008 EPA regulation deregulating many hazardous secondary materials under RCRA. The association argued that EPA erred in not including in the deregulation a category of hazardous secondary materia...
A district court dismissed a lawsuit filed by nongovernmental organizations and a group of minors claiming that six federal agencies violated their fiduciary duties to preserve and protect the atmosphere as a commonly shared public trust resource under the public trust doctrine. The public trust...
A district court held that a company may go forward with its RCRA claim against the former owner, but not the current owner, of adjacent property for groundwater contamination. The complaint contains sufficient factual allegations supporting the company's claim that the former owner of the neigh...
The Virginia Supreme Court, upon rehearing a case, once again held that under Virginia law, an insurer has no duty to defend or indemnify an energy company in an underlying lawsuit brought by a native Alaskan village for damages allegedly caused by global warming through the emission of greenhou...
A district court held that a property owner is not entitled to attorney fees from the U.S. government in an underlying case in which the government was found liable under RCRA for trichloroethylene contamination at the site. The lower court held that the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force were liable as...