Aransas Project v. Shaw
A district court held that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality violated ESA §9 by failing to properly manage freshwater inflows into the San Antonio and Guadalupe bays during the 2008-2009 winter, thereby causing an unlawful take of the world’s only self-sustaining, wild Whooping Crane ...
In re Polar Bear Endangered Species Act Listing
The D.C. Circuit affirmed a lower court decision upholding FWS' listing of the polar bear as threatened under the ESA, in part due to the effects of global climate change. Below, a number of industry groups argued that the listing rule is arbitrary and capricious under the APA and that FWS' action s...
Desert Protective Council v. United States Department of the Interior
A district court upheld BLM's approval of a record of decision (ROD) and its grant of a right of way (ROW) allowing the construction of a utility-scale wind project in California's Sonoran Desert. Conservation groups challenged BLM's actions under NEPA and FLPMA. But BLM's decision to grant the ROW ...
Quechan Tribe of the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation v. United States Department of the Interior
A district court upheld BLM's approval of a record of decision (ROD) allowing the construction of 112 wind turbines in an area that contains cultural and biological significance to a Native American tribe. BLM's decision to approve the ROD was reasonable as it considered all relevant factors and pro...