A district court granted in part and denied in part an aerospace company's motion to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that it failed to address the release of hazardous materials on an 18-acre property in the town of Oyster Bay between 1949 and 1962 and that has since become a community park. The town&nbs...
The U.S. Supreme Court, 8-0, held that the D.C. Circuit failed to afford the Surface Transportation Board the substantial deference NEPA requires in a challenge to the Board's authorization of a new 88-mile rail line in the Uinta Basin, and that the court incorrectly interpreted NEPA to require the ...
Tribes in the Pacific Northwest have faced persistent obstacles to their exercise of treaty fishing rights, most prominently illegal regulation of off-reservation fishing by state governments. As salmon decline, a new frontier is emerging for treaty right violations: environmental degradation. A recent court victory ruled that a series of culverts owned and operated by the state of Washington violated tribal treaty rights to fish for salmonids at their “usual and accustomed” places.
There has been an influx of “climate superfund” bills introduced and adopted in state legislatures across the country. Modeled after the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), these laws are designed to recover costs from large emitters of greenhouse gases (GHGs) to pay for climate adaptation infrastructure.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part summary judgment for the Forest Service in a challenge to approval of a forest thinning project in Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest. A conservation group argued the Service was required under NEPA to repeat the public comment process after a ...
A district court granted environmental groups' motion for summary judgment in a challenge to BLM's approval of a commercial logging project on federal land in Oregon. The groups argued BLM violated NEPA by failing to take a "hard look" at the environmental impacts and failing to prepare an EIS. The ...
The Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and vacated in part summary judgment for USDA's Wildlife Services in a challenge to the authorization of a predator damage and conflict management program in Nevada wilderness areas. Environmental groups argued the program violated the Wilderness Act because p...
The D.C. Circuit denied environmental groups' petitions to review DOE's authorization of a project to export from Alaska to non-free trade countries up to 20 million metric tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per annum for 30 years. The groups argued DOE misconceived the "public interest" and failed...