The court holds that the Pipeline Safety Improvement Act of 2002 preempts a city's regulatory efforts to provide safety oversight of a hazardous liquid pipeline within city boundaries. After a section of a hazardous liquid pipeline exploded in Seattle, Washington, the city refused to renew the pipel...

A court partially grants the U.S. motion to collaterally estop defendants from denying their liability as owners and operators of the Armour Road Superfund site in North Kansas City, Missouri. Except for one of the defendants, prior actions against the defendants were final, or sufficiently final, t...

The court holds that municipal flow control ordinances do not violate the dormant Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The municipal scheme at issue requires that the garbage generated by local households and businesses be delivered to facilities that are owned and operated by a public corporat...

The court reverses the dismissal of a developer's suit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the Corps) in which it sought to compel the Corps to take action on its application to construct a span bridge under Nationwide Permit 14. The district court dismissed the claim, holding that its prior o...

The court upholds the dismissal of state misdemeanor trespass and littering claims against a federal officer and contractor involved in the federal reintroduction of wolves in Wyoming. The officer and contractor were charged with the misdemeanors after they unknowingly entered private property in th...

A court holds that a timber company's procurement of a general permit for stormwater discharges stemming from its logging activities in Bear Creek, California, does not render an environmental group's Clean Water Act action against the company moot. The timber company failed to meet its burden to pr...

A court holds that a county did not effect a physical or regulatory taking when it imposed conditions on a landowner's permit to activate a well on its property. The conditional use permit limited the landowner from extracting no more than 12,000 acre/feet per year of water from the aquifer underlyi...

The court upholds the dismissal of a complaint against the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) involving a 1986 settlement agreement that allocated refunds of crude oil overcharges. Under the agreement, the refunded overcharges would be apportioned between the parties to the settlement agreement, which ...

The court denies a motion to remand to Louisiana state court individuals' class action against a company for the alleged seepage of mercury from one of its facilities. In addition to suing the company in state court, the class filed suit against the state environmental agency for failing to monitor,...

The court holds that petitioners lack standing to challenge a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) rule that revised regulations governing the exemption standards for the transportation of radioactive material. The petitioners argue that the NRC violated the National Environmental Policy Act in prepa...