A district court largely upheld several administrative decisions made by federal agencies approving the construction of various aspects of an offshore wind energy project in Nantucket Sound, remanding only two issues to FWS and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for ESA violations. Four gr...
A district court dismissed an environmental group's CAA citizens suit against EPA for failing to make a finding that Idaho and Utah failed to timely submit SIPs for fine particulate matter (PM2.5). In 2007, EPA issued a rule that required states to submit their SIPs for PM2.5 within three years afte...
The Ninth Circuit, in a 170+ page opinion, reversed in part and affirmed in part a lower court decision invalidating the FWS' 2008 biological opinion (BiOp) that concluded that the Central Valley Project (CVP) would jeopardize the continued existence of the delta smelt and its habitat. The project s...
The D.C. Circuit denied an electric utility association's petition for review challenging EPA's new source performance standards for steam generating units. The standards—issued via final rules in 2009 and again in 2012—exempt all units using particulate matter continuous emissions monitoring sy...
A district court extended FWS' deadline to complete its biological opinion (BiOp) for the threatened delta smelt, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's deadline to complete its related analysis under NEPA, and NMFS' deadline to complete its BiOp and a related NEPA analysis for endangered salmonid species...
A district court vacated a 2008 rule issued by the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) that governs the operation of coal mining activities near and through streams. The 2008 rule revised a 1983 rule, retaining the previous rule's stream buffer zone requirement, but establishi...
The Washington Supreme Court upheld the state environmental agency's determination that an EIS was not necessary for a proposed biomass cogeneration project at a kraft pulp and paper mill. An environmental group argued that by not preparing an EIS, the agency failed to adequately consider the effect...
A district court granted in part and denied in part motions to dismiss an environmental group's citizen suit against a utility company for alleged CAA violations at a coal-fired power plant in Muskogee, Oklahoma. The group alleged that the company failed to obtain a prevention of significant deterio...