A district court held that the U.S. Forest Service's travel management plan for the Salmon-Challis National Forest violates NEPA. Environmental groups argued that the travel plan fails to ensure that motor vehicle use is properly sited and managed on the Forest in order to minimize adverse environme...

A district court upheld the FWS' biological opinion and the U.S. Forest Service's EIS and record of decision for the Idaho Roadless Rule. The court therefore denied environmental groups' request to enjoin the rule and replace it with the nationwide roadless rule that was enacted in 2001. The...

The Ninth Circuit vacated and remanded DOE's energy transmission congestion study and national interest electric transmission (NIET) corridor designations prepared under the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct). The EPAct added §216 to the Federal Power Act, requiring DOE to prepare the conges...

The Ninth Circuit reversed a lower court decision dismissing a Peruvian Achuar indigenous group's lawsuit against an oil company for environmental contamination and the release of hazardous wastes. The complaint alleges that, during its 30 years in the Achuar territories, the oil company kno...

The Third Circuit reversed a lower court order granting an oil company's application to engage in discovery for use in an environmental class action before an Ecuadorian court under 28 U.S.C. §1782(a). The lower court ruled that the attorney-client privilege asserted by the Ecuadorian plaintif...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and vacated in part a lower court decision largely granting summary judgment in favor of the U.S. Forest Service on environmental groups' and California's NEPA and NFMA claims challenging the agency's 2004 Sierra Nevada forest plan amendment and a timber harve...

The Eighth Circuit held that the U.S. Forest Service's revised forest plan for the Superior National Forest complied with NEPA. The environmental groups that filed the suit have standing, given the immediate, concrete consequences for the recreational interests of specific visitors to the Su...

A district court held that the USDA Rural Utilities Service's (RUS') failure to prepare an EIS in connection with the expansion of a coal-fired power plant violated NEPA. RUS' involvement in the project, including financial assistance under the Rural Electrification Act, constitutes a "major fe...

The Ninth Circuit abandoned the "federal defendant" rule, which categorically prohibits private parties and state and local governments from intervening of right on the merits of NEPA claims. The case arose out of the U.S. Forest Service's adoption of a travel plan that designated 1,196 mile...

The Ninth Circuit held that BLM and the U.S. Forest Service did not violate the CWA, NEPA, or the National Forest Management Act (NFMA) in approving a proposed mine expansion project in the Caribou National Forest. After evaluating the data, the agencies determined that remediation efforts w...