Wyoming v. United States Department of the Interior
A district court struck down BLM's 2016 rule promulgating new regulations to reduce natural gas waste during oil and gas production activities on federal land and Indian leases. States argued that the rule exceeded BLM's statutory authority and was otherwise arbitrary and capricious. The court found...
Optimus Steel, LLC v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
A district court denied a steel mill owner's motion to preliminarily enjoin construction of a gas pipeline in Texas. The owner argued that the Army Corps of Engineers authorized the construction in violation of the CWA, the ESA, and NEPA. The court found that the owner had not clearly demonstrated a...
Center for Biological Diversity v. Tennessee Valley Authority
A district court dismissed for lack of standing a challenge to the Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA's) rate change for customers in its seven-state service area. Environmental groups argued that TVA violated NEPA by enacting the rate change based on a deficient EA, by failing to consider the enviro...
North American Butterfly Ass'n v. Wolf
The D.C. Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part a lower court's dismissal of a conservation group's suit to block the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from constructing a border wall near the National Butterfly Center in southern Texas. The group argued that the Department's presence on ...
Bullock v. United States Bureau of Land Management
A district court held that William Perry Pendley was unlawfully serving as the acting director of BLM. The governor of Montana and the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation argued that Pendley was unlawfully serving as the acting director in violation of the Appointments Clause, t...
Wild Virginia v. Council on Environmental Quality
A district court denied environmental groups' motion to preliminarily enjoin or stay a rule issued by CEQ revising the regulations for federal agencies to follow in implementing NEPA. The groups argued that the rule was inconsistent with NEPA because, among other things, it improperly removed the re...