The court reverses a lower court decision finding the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) liable for the permanent taking of a mining company's leasehold property. The mining company applied to the OSM for a permit and was told that its application was administratively incompl...

The court holds that it lacked jurisdiction over the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC's) decision denying environmental groups' request that the licensing of two nuclear power plants in New York be conditioned on several safety-related changes in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist att...

The First Circuit denied an electric company's petition for review of three Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) orders that asserted mandatory licensing authority over the company's hydroelectric project, required the company to install gauges to measure stream flow at the project, and requi...

A Nevada court upheld a county decision denying a company's request for a special use permit to mine clay from two open pits on federal land north of Reno, Nevada, and to build a plant to produce cat litter on private land nearby. The Mining Law of 1872 and federal regulations don't exempt the proje...

The court holds that a nuclear facility employee's state suit for damages based on personal injury allegedly caused by exposure to unsafe dosages of radiation was constitutionally removed to federal court under the Price-Anderson Amendments Act (PAAA), and that retroactive application of the PAAA di...

The court holds that the Pacific Northwest Electric Power and Conservation Planning Council (Council) violated the Northwest Power Act (NPA) §839b(h)(7) and the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to explain, in its final amendments to its fish and wildlife program for the Columbia River Basin,...

The court holds that the operators of the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor violated their duty of care to the public by releasing, during a 1979 accident at the facility, radiation in levels exceeding federal standards for radioactivity allowed in liquid or airborne effluents released off premises....

The court holds that punitive damages are available under Pennsylvania law and the Price-Anderson Amendments Act of 1988 (PAA)) to plaintiffs in a suit against the operators of the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor for personal injuries allegedly resulting from exposure to radiation released during ...

The court holds that the Eleventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution does not bar a citizen group that was denied attorney fees by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality from asserting a Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) claim against the state agency in federal court. The ...

The court rules that the Price-Anderson Act does not bar, under an exception to the tribal exhaustion doctrine, Native American tribal court jurisdiction over an action against corporations operating a uranium processing mill on the Navajo Reservation in alleged violation of tribal law. Under the tr...