A district court held that community service having a value no more than $500,000 would be an appropriate sentence for a pipeline operator that stored liquid mercury at one of its facilities without a permit. Below, a trial court imposed an $18 million fine against the company, but the sentence was ...

The Sixth Circuit struck down the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' reissuance of nationwide permit 21, which authorizes surface coal mining operations to discharge dredged and fill material into waters of the United States. An environmental group challenged the permit, alleging that the cumulative-impa...

The Eleventh Circuit, in an unpublished opinion, reversed and remanded a lower court decision dismissing a company's cost recovery action under CERCLA for failure to state a claim. The lower court granted the motion to dismiss upon a finding that a "no-listing letter" from the Georgia Environmental ...

The Federal Circuit held that the United States may not use the "unavoidable delay" defense in breach of contract actions stemming from its failure to accept spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from the nation's nuclear utilities. The Standard Contract provided that DOE was to begin accepting SNF no later than...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of an environmental group's citizen suit against two electric companies alleging that their utility poles discharged wood preservative into the environment in violation of the CWA and RCRA. The group failed to state a claim under the CWA because discharges of...