The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision that BLM complied with NEPA and FLPMA in allowing the construction of a utility-scale wind project in California's Sonoran Desert. BLM sufficiently evaluated and disclosed the environmental impacts of the wind energy facility project under NEPA. Envi...

A Washington court held that the public trust doctrine applies to the protection of the atmosphere, including limits on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but denied minors' petitions for stricter GHG regulations because the state agency has already commenced rulemaking. The court held that the state h...

A district court denied oil and gas companies' motions to dismiss claims that their use and handling of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) has contaminated, or threatens to contaminate, groundwater in Puerto Rico. The companies argued that Puerto Rico's island-wide claims for relief should be dismis...

A district court dismissed several claims a group of cattle ranchers filed against USDA and DOI concerning actions taken to protect the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse, an endangered species. Following the listing of the species in 2014, the U.S. Forest Service proposed to erect a five-foot pipe fen...

The Federal Claims Court held that the U.S. government may not engage in discovery about oil companies' insurance policies in an underlying case concerning cleanup costs stemming from the production of high-octane aviation gas (avgas) during World War II. The Federal Circuit previously held that the...

A district court dismissed property owners' lawsuit against a mining company for unlawfully diverting excess wastewater into underground mine voids located beneath their land. Although the owners filed suit after the statute-of-limitations period expired, the owners argued that CERCLA's discovery ru...