Center for Biological Diversity v. United States Bureau of Land Management
A district court vacated BLM's final EIS and 2019 record of decision (ROD) that approved an open-pit phosphate mine in southeast Idaho. Environmental groups had argued the ROD and final EIS upon which it was based violated NEPA, FLPMA, and the CWA. The court granted summary judgment in part for the ...
Juliana v. United States
A district court granted a group of youths' motion for leave to file a second amended complaint in a lawsuit alleging the U.S. government failed to act on climate change and violated their right to a safe climate. The youths had argued that the government violated their constitutional rights under t...
Sierra Club v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
The D.C. Circuit granted in part environmental groups' petitions to review FERC orders allowing the Mountain Valley Pipeline project to proceed. The groups argued FERC erred by allowing construction to resume before the pipeline owner reacquired all its other permits, that constructing segments of t...
Concerned Household Electricity Consumers Council v. Environmental Protection Agency
The D.C. Circuit dismissed industry groups' petitions to review EPA's decision not to reconsider its 2009 finding that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from motor vehicles contribute to climate change and thus endanger public health and welfare. The groups initially petitioned EPA to reconsider its fi...
Climate Compliance Versus Action 2023
The Inflation Reduction Act and Federal Buy Clean Initiative have each inspired states and municipalities to regulate embodied carbon (Scope 3) using “Buy Clean” policies and legislation. Reducing embodied carbon has become mainstream, and environmental product declarations (EPDs) have surfaced as the tool. Are EPDs alone enough? Is the compliance timeline sufficient? On February 1, 2023, the Environmental Law Institute hosted a panel of experts that provided an update on Buy Clean policy, green funding, the status of carbon emissions, and a primer on EPDs.
Alliance for the Wild Rockies v. Petrick
The Ninth Circuit vacated two district court rulings in challenges to the Forest Service's approval of a logging project in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest. An environmental group sued the Forest Service in two separate suits, arguing it violated the Healthy Forest Restoration Act (HFRA) and NEP...
Center for Biological Diversity v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
The D.C. Circuit dismissed in part and denied in part environmental groups' petition to review FERC's approval of a liquefied natural gas project in Alaska. The groups argued the approval violated NEPA and the Natural Gas Act. The court found that FERC considered and reasonably rejected no-action al...