North Dakota v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
A district court stayed further proceedings in litigation challenging EPA's "waters of the United States" (WOTUS) rule pending any further decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit or the U.S. Supreme Court. Numerous challenges throughout the country have been levied against the fi...
Kain v. Department of Environmental Protection
Massachusetts' highest court held that the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) failed to issue regulations setting limits on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as required by Massachusetts' Global Warming Solutions Act §3(d). DEP claimed it complied with its statutory mandate by establi...
Friends of Thayer Lake LLC v. Brown
New York's highest court held that material questions of fact prevent it from ruling on whether a narrow waterway within a remote area of the Adirondack Mountains is navigable-in-fact and therefore open to public use. At issue in the case is the "Mud Pond Waterway," a two-mile-long system of ponds a...
Juliana v. United States
A magistrate judge recommended that a district court deny motions to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a group of young people against the U.S. government for failing to protect them from climate change. The plaintiffs alleged that the government has known for decades that carbon dioxide (CO2) pollution ...
Montana Environmental Information Center v. Montana Department of Environmental Quality
A Montana court vacated and remanded a water discharge permit that the state's environmental agency issued to a coal mine in southeastern Montana. The agency's decisions are arbitrary and not supported by the law, and when viewed in its totality, the record demonstrates clear errors of judgment with...
National Wildlife Federation v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
A district court held that conservation groups lacked standing to challenge the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to reissue a nationwide permit (NWP 13) authorizing the discharge of dredged and fill material to construct bank stabilization projects. The groups alleged that the Corps reissued...