The North Dakota Supreme Court held that the state owns the mineral interests under the shore zone of the Missouri River, which cuts through the oil-rich Bakken Shale region. Under the equal footing doctrine, the state's title to the beds of navigable waters extends from high watermark to high water...

A California appellate court, in an unpublished opinion, upheld San Francisco's ban on the use of plastic "checkout bags" by retail establishments in the city and county. A group of plastic bag manufacturers and distributors filed suit, arguing that the ban violates the California Environmental Qual...

A federal bankruptcy court held that a petroleum company and its subsidiaries may be held liable for at least $5 billion—and perhaps up to $14 billion—in environmental response costs and tort liabilities. In 2005, a now-bankrupt manufacturing company that makes titanium dioxide pigments was tran...

Pennsylvania's highest court struck down Act 13, which pertains to oil and gas operations in the Marcellus Shale, as unconstitutional. The Act repealed Pennsylvania’s Oil and Gas Act and replaced it with a codified statutory framework regulating oil and gas operations in the Commonwealth. Among ot...

The Alabama Supreme Court held that a property owner may go forward with its inverse condemnation claim against the director of the state transportation agency for allowing contaminated water to be pumped onto the owner's land. Although the agency is immune from suit, valid inverse condemnation acti...

The Second Circuit held that it lacks jurisdiction to review an electric company's suit challenging the constitutionality of Vermont's Electrical Energy Generating Tax. The company owns a nuclear power plant that is the sole entity taxed under the scheme, which imposes a charge on electricity produc...

A district court dismissed Native American and environmental groups' CAA citizen suit asking the court to order EPA to issue a final rule that establishes best available retrofit technology (BART) for the Navajo Generating Station, a coal-fired power plant in northern Arizona near the Grand Canyon. ...