A district court dismissed a lawsuit filed by Alaska native groups seeking to rescind certain oil and gas leases issued by the Minerals Management Service (MMS) in 2007. The MMS prepared an EIS in 2003 for lease sales that were to occur in 2003, 2005, and 2007. Because of the time lag between the 20...

The D.C. Circuit upheld the U.S. Department of the Interior's (DOI's) interpretation of "valid existing rights" in a 1999 rule to foreclose surface mining operations in sensitive areas. A mining association argued that Congress inserted "valid existing rights" in the Surface Mining Control and Recla...

A California appellate court reversed a lower court decision denying a petition to set aside a regional water board order requiring a company to perform a human health risk assessment in connection with its cleanup of a large toxic groundwater plume of industrial wastes that leaked into the ground a...

A California appellate court held that a regional air quality district abused its discretion under the California Environmental Quality Act in issuing a negative declaration for an ultra low sulfur diesel fuel manufacturing project. The environmental group challenging the project offered substantial...

The First Circuit held that under Massachusetts law, an insurance company has no contractual obligation to defend or indemnify an individual in an environmental liability suit brought against him by his neighbors for soil contamination stemming from a leaking underground storage tank (UST). The tota...

A California appellate court upheld a lower court decision dismissing claims challenging a memorandum of understanding (MOU) entered into by a state agency and an environmental group to help implement the California Marine Life Protection Act. In enacting the statute, the state legislature failed to...

The Supreme Court of South Dakota upheld the state's approval of a permit to construct a coal-fired energy conversion facility. Certain nonprofit environmental organizations asserted that the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the plant would contribute to global warming, thereby posing a threat of...

A California appellate court held that the California Coastal Act of 1976 does not grant the California Coastal Commission the power to declare property an "environmentally sensitive habitat area" during the administrative appeal from a local government's grant of a coastal development permit. The C...

A California appellate court rejected a petition to invalidate a regional district's annexation of 144,000 acres of coastland. Although the public notice for a protest hearing failed to include a statement of reasons for the annexation, this was not prejudicial. Nor was any potential ambiguity in th...

The Tenth Circuit upheld the constitutionality of Colorado's Clean Indoor Air Act. The Act bans smoking in indoor areas, but it expressly exempts from this general prohibition "airport smoking concessions" such as airport restaurants and bars. A coalition of tavern and bar owners filed suit challeng...