The Ninth Circuit holds that a district court erred in holding that residents living across from a county dump lacked standing to bring Clean Air Act (CAA) claims based on ozone degradation against a county health department and in granting the county summary judgment on the residents' Resource Cons...

The D.C. Circuit held that on remand EPA must explain how the risk assessments it used in exempting certain recycled zinc fertilizer products from regulation under RCRA compare with the risk threshold estimates in a private study. Petitioners were limited to challenging EPA's claim that its study an...

The D.C. Circuit granted several municipalities' petition to review an FAA order allowing Chicago to impose a $4.50 passenger facility fee to fund an EIS being prepared in connection with the modernization of O'Hare International Airport. Under the Federal Aviation Act of 1958, the FAA must find, am...

A district court granted environmental groups' motion to preliminarily enjoin the Secretary of Commerce from implementing his finding under the International Dolphin Conservation Program Act that the intentional deployment on, or encirclement of, dolphins with purse seine nets is not having a signif...

The Ninth Circuit held unripe nonprofit groups' action to obtain a declaration that a U.S. Department of Energy order that outlines the management of defense radioactive waste is invalid. Delayed review will not cause any real cognizable hardship, but intervention at this point would unduly interfer...

A district court granted summary judgment against environmental groups on their claim that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) violated the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to perform assessment, evaluation, and determination duties within the Jordan Resource Area in Oregon. The groups failed...

The First Circuit held that U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations that permit synthetic substances to be used in processing organic foods are contrary to the plain language of the Organic Foods Production Act. Similarly, provisions creating an exception to the Act's 12-month requirement for dai...

A district court granted the state of Washington's motion for partial summary judgment on its claim that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) violated the Washington State Hazardous Waste Management Act (HWMA) when it decided to ship radioactive and hazardous mixed transuranic waste to the Hanford Nu...

The Sixth Circuit upheld the Surface Transportation Board's grant of a railroad company's request to operate an intermodal transportation facility on city property. Local governments argued that the company's proposal was a sham designed to prevent the surrounding cities from taking the property by ...

The D.C. Circuit held that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) properly modified the terms, set forth in earlier settlements, under which three natural gas shippers must ship gas over the lines of the El Paso Natural Gas Company. FERC did not err by converting the shippers' contracts fro...