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...
The court upholds the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) decision not to list used oil from gasoline-powered engines that is destined for disposal as hazardous waste under the Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA). The court first holds that petitioners have standing to challenge EPA...
The court declines to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over state-law claims in an action brought by a municipal owner of a contaminated landfill asserting two Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) claims and nine state-law claims against waste depositors t...