The court denies a California public utility's petition for a writ of mandamus staying various aspects of a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) order addressing the crisis surrounding California's restructuring of its electricity market, and denies a city's petition for mandamus ordering FER...

The court holds that the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA's) and Air National Guard's (ANG's) orders approving the Colorado Airspace Initiative (Initiative) and its underlying environmental impact analysis did not violate the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Federal Aviation Act, ...

A district court ordered the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to install and continuously operate scrubbers at four power plants in Tennessee and Alabama. North Carolina filed a public nuisance claim against TVA, citing urgent environmental concerns due to air pollution emitted by TVA's coal-fired p...

The Court of Federal Claims awarded $84 million to four oil companies for costs they incurred cleaning up waste stemming from the production of aviation gasoline during World War II under contracts with the U.S. government. The government argued that the oil companies are not entitled to recover all...

The Eighth Circuit affirmed a lower court order holding that a company substantially complied with a state's remediation plan for cleaning up PCB contamination at a hazardous waste site. The company's predecessor-in-interest operated an electrical transformer repair facility on the subject property,...

The Fourth Circuit reversed a lower court decision rejecting the U.S. Coast Guard's interpretation of its own regulations concerning the installation of double hulls on oil tankers overseas. Under U.S. law, a vessel becomes ineligible to participate in the coastwise trade if significant work is perf...

A district court denied New Jersey's motion to amend a 1997 consent decree concerning the Gloucester Environmental Management Services, Inc., landfill and ordered it to comply with the terms of the decree. The state alleged that the detection of the presence of radionuclides requires a new remedy fo...

The court upholds the dismissal of individuals' employment retaliation suits against the state of Rhode Island and the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management concerning potential Solid Waste Disposal Act violations. The state has not waived its right to sovereign immunity, and the U.S. ...

The court denies a railway company's petition for review of a Surface Transportation Board order rejecting as unreasonable certain rates the railroad charged to a company to ship coal. The board issued its ruling three-and-one-half years after a complaint was filed. Because 49 U.S.C. §11701(c) prov...

The court held that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation did not breach its repayment contract with a municipal water district concerning a water reclamation project on the Ventura River in California when it required the district to build a $9.1 million fish passage facility and to relinquish a portion o...