The Ninth Circuit vacated and remanded a lower court decision that environmental groups lacked standing to challenge BLM's decision to sell oil and gas leases in Montana. Below, the groups claimed BLM failed to adequately consider climate change, global warming, and greenhouse gases in violation of ...
A district court largely dismissed claims challenging California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard, a collection of regulations promulgated by the California Air Resources Board to implement provisions of California Assembly Bill 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. In September 2013, the Ninth Ci...
A Washington court ordered the state's environmental agency to reconsider its denial of youths' petition asking the agency to adopt rulemaking to limit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in accordance with the best available science. The youths had also petitioned the agency to recommend to the state le...
The D.C. Circuit held that building and development associations lacked standing to challenge consent decrees that require FWS to determine, in accordance with a settlement-defined schedule, whether 251 species should be listed as endangered or threatened under the ESA. The case arose after environm...
The D.C. Circuit held that a home builders' association lacked standing to challenge EPA's and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' determination that two reaches of the Santa Cruz River in southern Arizona constitute "traditional navigable waters" (TNW) under the CWA. The court previously held in a si...
The Federal Circuit upheld a lower court decision dismissing on jurisdictional grounds a landowner's Fifth Amendment takings claim against the government in connection with a CWA permit denial. The lower court held that the complaint was barred by 28 U.S.C. §1500, which prohibits the U.S. Court of ...
The Fifth Circuit held that parties to the class action settlement agreement concerning economic and property damages stemming from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill may seek appellate review of district court decisions on individual claims. The district court had approved final rules governing discre...
A district court held that trade associations and nonprofit corporations representing members of the timber industry lack standing to challenge the Forest Service's 2012 planning rule governing development of individual land and resource management plans for the 155 national forests and 20 national ...
The D.C. Circuit, in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA, No. 12-1146, 44 ELR 20132 (2014), amended a prior decision in which it upheld four EPA rulemakings governing greenhouse gases (GHGs). The four rules are: (1) EPA's endangerment finding, in which i...
A Massachusetts court dismissed residents' lawsuit seeking a declaratory judgment that the state's environmental agency failed to comply with §3(d) of the Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA). The GWSA is a legislative scheme designed to address the effects of climate change in Massachusetts by prom...