Yurok Tribe v. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
A district court denied a Native American tribe's request to lift a stay in a lawsuit against the Bureau of Reclamation seeking to protect endangered coho salmon from the impacts of an irrigation project in the Klamath River Basin. The tribe asserted that the Bureau failed to comply with the terms o...
Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsborough County v. Volkswagen Group of America, Inc.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part a district court's dismissal of a suit challenging an automobile company's use of diesel-cheat devices to evade compliance with federally mandated emission standards. Two counties argued the company's installation of and modification to the dev...
American Stewards of Liberty v. Department of Interior
The Fifth Circuit dismissed a challenge to FWS' constitutional authority to regulate activities affecting the Bone Cave harvestman, a small arachnid known to live only in caves in central Texas that is currently listed as endangered under the ESA. A county and an individual, intervening plaintiffs i...
Environmental Integrity Project v. United States Environmental Protection Agency
The Fifth Circuit upheld EPA's decision to reject a challenge to a CAA Title V permit it issued for expansion of a plant in Baytown, Texas. Environmental groups requested that EPA reject the permit on the grounds that the underlying Title I preconstruction permit allowing the expansion was invalid. ...
Weymouth v. Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection
The First Circuit vacated an air permit issued by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MDEP) for a proposed natural gas compressor station that is part of a natural gas pipeline connecting the northeastern U.S. and Canada. Nearby municipalities and citizens argued that MDEP impr...
California v. Bernhardt
A district court denied FWS' and NMFS' motion to dismiss a challenge to the agencies' issuance of rules that revised key requirements of the ESA's implementing regulations. States and conservation groups argued that the agencies exceeded their statutory authority in issuing the rules in violation of...
Center for Biological Diversity v. Bernhardt
A district court dismissed for lack of standing a challenge to FWS' and NMFS' issuance of rules that revised key requirements of ESA's implementing regulations. Conservation groups argued that the rules failed to provide an adequate EIS in violation of NEPA, failed to provide adequate notice and com...
Maryland v. Environmental Protection Agency
The D.C. Circuit granted in part and denied in part Delaware's and Maryland's challenges to EPA's denial of their CAA §126(b) petitions requesting that the Agency impose additional limitations on certain upwind sources contributing to the states' nonattainment of ozone NAAQS. Maryland's petition ar...