The Ninth Circuit held that the BLM violated NEPA when it approved a mining company's amendment to a plan of operations for an existing mineral exploration project in Nevada. The BLM took a hard look at the direct impacts of the amendment and its discussion of reasonable alternatives was proper, but...

The Tenth Circuit rejected environmental and citizens' groups challenge to a 2003 BLM resource management plan amendment allowing natural gas development in Wyoming's Powder River Basin. The groups alleged that BLM violated NEPA when it refused to study in detail their proposal to phase development ...

The Fourth Circuit reversed and remanded a lower court injunction requiring the immediate installation of emissions controls at four TVA generating plants in Alabama and Tennessee. TVA is in compliance with the NAAQS, the corresponding SIPs, and the permits that implement them. Because these standar...

The D.C. Circuit denied environmental organizations' petitions for declaratory and injunctive relief arguing that the BLM's record of decision, accompanying EIS, and subsequent drilling permits for a natural gas field in south-central Wyoming violated NEPA, FLPMA, and the APA. The project was design...

The Eighth Circuit upheld a lower court decision dismissing on jurisdictional grounds environmental groups' claims that FEMA's approval of a levee violated the National Flood Insurance Act (NFIA) and the APA. In essence, the groups were challenging FEMA's flood elevation determination. Accordingly, ...

The Tenth Circuit vacated a lower court decision granting summary judgment in favor of a magnesium company on claims that its handling of waste violated RCRA Subtitle C. The company argued that EPA exempted the five wastes at issue from Subtitle C’s strictures in a prior interpretation of its ...

The Ninth Circuit dismissed environmental groups' claims against the U.S. Forest Service challenging revisions it made to regulations implementing the Forest Service Decisionmaking and Appeals Reform Act (ARA). The revisions limit the scope and availability of notice, comment, and appeals procedures...

A district court dismissed a hunting and fishing organization's NEPA and FLPMA claims against the BLM challenging its approval of oil and gas operations in the Pinedale Anticline natural gas field in western Wyoming. Claims that the BLM violated FLPMA were dismissed because the record supports the a...

The court holds that individuals' Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and state-law claims against a gasoline corporation that spilled 600,000 gallons of gasoline onto the individuals' property and a surrounding lake and creek are not barred because the state has not engaged in a Comprehen...

The court holds that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) guidelines for carrying out the certification of Waste Isolation Pilot Plant's (WIPP's) compliance with radioactive waste disposal regulations are specific enough to qualify as "criteria" under 40 C.F.R. Part 191. The court note...