Center for Biological Diversity v. Berger
A district court granted BLM's motion to dismiss a challenge to its approval of 26 applications for permits to drill in Colorado. An environmental group argued BLM's refusal to impose environmental mitigation measures on drill sites located on private land violated the APA and impaired its members' ...
Couser v. Shelby County, Iowa
The Eighth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for a carbon dioxide pipeline company in a challenge to two Iowa county ordinances that regulate pipelines. The company, which wants to build an interstate pipeline through Iowa, argued the ordinances were preempted by the Pipeline Safety Act (PSA) and Io...
Appalachian Voices v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
The D.C. Circuit denied environmental groups' challenges to FERC's decision to grant a company's request to extend its construction deadline for a 75-mile extension to the Mountain Valley Pipeline. The groups argued FERC's finding of "good cause" to grant the extension and its refusal to revisit its...
Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance v. United States Department of the Interior
A district court reversed its prior dismissal of a challenge to four BLM leasing decisions concerning federal land in Utah. An environmental group had argued BLM violated NEPA and the ESA by failing to fully analyze the environmental, social, direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts of the lessees' ...
Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado
The U.S. Supreme Court, 8-0, held that the D.C. Circuit failed to afford the Surface Transportation Board the substantial deference NEPA requires in a challenge to the Board's authorization of a new 88-mile rail line in the Uinta Basin, and that the court incorrectly interpreted NEPA to require the ...