The Ninth Circuit reversed and remanded certain lower court pretrial orders that excluded government witnesses and studies in a case concerning the release of asbestos-contaminated vermiculite at a mine. The lower court exceeded its authority by ordering the government to produce a pretrial list of ...

The D.C. Circuit denied petitions to review two Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) regulations concerning the project design and capacity expansion of Alaska natural gas transportation projects. The petitioner wants to construct a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope of Alaska to the c...

A district court granted in part and denied in part environmental groups' motion to preliminarily enjoin all logging of suitable spotted owl habitat on private lands in owl circles outside of spotted owl special emphasis areas throughout the state of Washington. The court granted the groups' request...

A district court held that certain consulting costs an oil company incurred in mitigating and remediating a methyl tertiary butyl ether spill in Fort Montgomery, New York, do not qualify as defense costs immediately reimbursable from its insurer. The court applied the New Jersey presumption that man...

A California appellate court held that a city did not abuse its discretion in approving a residential and business development project. The city's land use plan envisioned business and residential development in the area. An environmental group argued that the project violated the plan because it wo...

A California appellate court affirmed the dismissal of residents' claims against two groups of water purveyors—one regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC), and the other a group of public entity water suppliers—seeking damages for alleged contamination to their drinking wat...

The court holds that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' authorization of a flood control project in the St. Johns Bayou and New Madrid Floodway on the west bank of the Mississippi River violates the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and enjoined further construction work on the project. Environmenta...

North Carolina's appellate court reversed and remanded a jury's award of $500,000 in compensatory and punitive damages to the owner of a well whose water was contaminated with gasoline due to leaking underground storage tanks at a nearby gasoline station. The trial court failed to instruct the jury ...

The Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed a lower court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of appellee title insurance company finding that the undisclosed existence of an abandoned septic tank was not a defect in title within the meaning of appellant’s title insurance policy. Title insurance p...

A California appellate court denied a challenge by a group of trade associations to a trial court’s ruling that upheld the listing of two coho salmon populations as endangered and threatened under the California Endangered Species Act (CESA) (Fish & Game Code §§2050 et seq.). Under CESA, spe...