The Ninth Circuit upheld a lower court decision affirming the U.S. Forest Service's decision to implement the Little Slate Project, a 2,598-acre timber thinning sale within the Nez Perce National Forest. Environmental groups asserted that the Forest Service and FWS violated the National Forest Manag...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision granting summary judgment in favor of the federal government on claims that it violated ESA, NEPA, and National Forest Management Act in connection with its approval of a lumber thinning and fuel reduction project in northern California. An environme...

The D.C. Circuit upheld EPA's denial of a petition filed by 101 environmental groups asking the Agency to regulate spent lead bullets and shot under TSCA. EPA rejected the petition as “non-cognizable” under TSCA §21 on the grounds that it largely duplicated an earlier petition that two of the 1...

The North Dakota Supreme Court upheld an administrative law judge's (ALJ's) award of benefits in the death of an oil-tank worker. According to the medical examiner's report, the worker died from hydrocarbon poisoning due to the inhalation of petroleum vapors from oil storage tanks. His employer argu...

A district court held that the Farm Service Agency and the Small Business Administration violated NEPA and the ESA when they guaranteed loans to a hog farm without adequately assessing the farm's environmental impact. The farm, which houses 6,500 swine, is located near a tributary of the Buffalo Nat...

A district court, in a 120-page decision, dismissed claims that the U.S. Navy negligently exposed a child to thallium dust during its cleanup of a contaminated landfill site. The child's family, which lived next to the site, alleged that wind-blown dust migrated to their yard and home and caused her...

A district court denied an oil company's motion to amend the findings, alter the judgment, or order a new trial in the Deepwater Horizon case in which the court found the company grossly negligent in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The company argued that it repeatedly objected to expert witness ...