A California appellate court holds that the state water board abuses its discretion in imposing certain restrictions on an irrigation district's permit to appropriate water within the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed but not on appropriators whose rights are junior to those of the irrigator. T...

A California appellate court upholds a city's and county's certification of a 2003 habitat conservation plan and implementation agreement for threatened hawks and snakes in the Natamos Basin, as well as the state wildlife department's plan for issuing incidental take permits in the area, under the C...

The court dismisses petitions for review of two Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) orders concerning the calculation of settlement statements relating to the California energy crisis. The California Independent System Operator (Cal-ISO) sought review of a FERC order in which it declined Cal...

The court upholds several off-road vehicle (ORV) restrictions imposed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in certain parts of Utah. BLM complied with the Federal Land Policy and Management Act and the National Environmental Policy Act when it enacted the restrictions, BLM's decision to close vari...

A district court enjoined the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from leasing approximately 1.7 million acres within the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska for oil exploration. The lease concerns vast areas of sensitive wetlands surrounding Lake Teshekpuk that are protected under the National Petrole...

A court held that a regional water board violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) when it issued a national pollution discharge elimination system (NPDES) permit concerning municipal stormwater and urban runoff discharges in Los Angeles County. Contrary to the board's argument, state...

The court held that a state environmental agency arbitrarily and capriciously denied a pipeline company's application for a water quality certificate that would allow it to discharge into waters of Long Island Sound during the construction of an interstate natural gas pipeline. The agency failed to ...

A district court held that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers failed to take a "hard look" at the environmental impacts and consequences of dredging and disposing of contaminated sediment from the Industrial Canal, a five-mile link just east of New Orleans in the navigational system that connects the ...

A court held that a biomedical company may go forward with its suit for injunctive relief to stop terrifying acts allegedly committed by members of an animal rights group who targeted the company's employees as part of an effort to expose animal abuse in biomedical labs. The group argued that the co...

A court dismissed an environmental group's lawsuit against wind power operators in the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area. The group argued that the operators violated the state's unfair competition law and the common-law public trust doctrine based on bird collisions with the wind turbines. But the g...