National Audubon Society v. United States Army Corps of Engineers
A district court granted summary judgment to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in a challenge to the Corps' approval of construction of a terminal groin to mitigate shoreline erosion in a North Carolina town. A conservation group first argued that the third-party contractor who submitted the permit a...
Berner v. Montour Township Zoning Hearing Board
A state high court reversed a lower court decision in a lawsuit over a hog farmer's application for a special zoning exception to construct a livestock manure storage facility. The farmer argued that a a local zoning ordinance setting forth criteria that must be met to obtain approval for the facili...
Southeast Alaska Conservation Council v. United States Forest Service
A district court preliminarily enjoined the U.S. Forest Service from allowing any timber harvesting, road construction, or other ground-disturbing activities associated with the Service's authorization of a timber sale in Tongass National Forest. Environmental groups, whose members use areas that wo...
Protect Our Communities Foundation v. LaCounte
The Ninth Circuit affirmed a summary judgment in favor of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and its approval of an industrial-scale wind facility in southern California. A conservation group argued that BIA improperly relied on BLM's EIS for the project because BIA failed to explain its decision no...
Center for Biological Diversity v. United States Environmental Protection Agency
The Fifth Circuit dismissed environmental groups' challenge to EPA's issuance of a CWA general permit authorizing discharges from oil and gas facilities operating in the Gulf of Mexico. Environmental groups argued that EPA violated NEPA by failing to prepare an adequate EIS before issuing the permit...
United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma v. Federal Communications Commission
The D.C. Circuit granted in part petitions to vacate a portion of a Federal Communications Commission order that exempted most small cell construction from review under the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and NEPA. Native American tribes and an environmental group argued that eliminating h...