Center for Biological Diversity v. U.S. Forest Service
A district court granted in part and denied in part a motion for summary judgment in a challenge to the Forest Service's and BLM's authorizations of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in Wayne National Forest. Environmental groups argued the agencies violated NEPA by failing to take a "hard look" at...
Voyageur Outward Bound School v. United States
A district court upheld DOI's renewal of two mineral leases that had previously been rejected for a copper-nickel mine in Superior National Forest. Businesses and environmental groups argued that DOI's authority to reconsider its decision to renew was limited to ministerial or inadvertent errors, an...
Wildgrass Oil and Gas Committee v. Colorado
A district court dismissed constitutional challenges to Colorado's forced pooling statute, under which property owners were required to allow oil and gas companies to extract their minerals. A group of property owners argued the statute violated the First Amendment by requiring non-consenting owners...
Union Pacific Railroad Co. v. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration
The D.C. Circuit denied a petition to review the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s rule regulating disclosure requirements for railroad companies transporting hazardous materials. A company argued that the rule, which required railroads to release an aggregated report to off...
Chesapeake Climate Action Network v. Environmental Protection Agency
The D.C. Circuit granted a petition to reconsider EPA's Final Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) Rule that exempted coal- and oil-burning power plant boilers' startup periods from numerical limits on hazardous air pollutants (HAPs). Environmental groups challenged the Agency's denial of their p...