The Federal Circuit affirmed the lower court’s judgment that no taking occurred on a Pennsylvania family farm where a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency consent decree required appellant-farmer to reestablish wetlands on a portion of the farm. The farm is an integrated whole despite the exis...

A district court denied plaintiff environmental group's motion for summary judgment under the Administrative Procedure Act to compel compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and to enforce a 1987 stipulation. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) did not violate NEPA's policy prohi...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed dismissal of an action against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and others under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in which an environmental group sought injunctive, declaratory, and other relief relating to the preparation of certain environmental...

The D.C. Circuit denied citizen advocacy groups' claim that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission violated the National Environmental Policy Act and the Atomic Energy Act when it granted a license for a new, privately owned facility in New Mexico to produce enriched uranium as fuel for nuclear reactors....

The Fourth Circuit affirmed an award of attorney fees in a citizen suit brought under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act with respect to the preliminary injunction phase of the litigation, but reversed fees awarded for the supplemental claims phase. The supplemental phase included plaint...

A district court dismissed environmental groups' claim that the Department of Homeland Security's waiver of various federal environmental laws with respect to the construction of a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border under the REAL ID Act of 2005 was unconstitutional. The court lacks the power to in...

A district court dismissed a lawsuit filed by Alaska native groups seeking to rescind certain oil and gas leases issued by the Minerals Management Service (MMS) in 2007. The MMS prepared an EIS in 2003 for lease sales that were to occur in 2003, 2005, and 2007. Because of the time lag between the 20...

The D.C. Circuit upheld the U.S. Department of the Interior's (DOI's) interpretation of "valid existing rights" in a 1999 rule to foreclose surface mining operations in sensitive areas. A mining association argued that Congress inserted "valid existing rights" in the Surface Mining Control and Recla...

A district court granted a motion to dismiss Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, and New Jersey Spill Compensation and Control Act claims filed against the state environmental agency and its commissioner in connection ...

The Eighth Circuit held that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did not violate the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when it implemented certain revisions to the operational document for the Missouri River Mainstem Reservoir System without preparing a supplemental environmental impact statemen...