The court holds that a 1977 contribution a chemical company made to the Virginia Environmental Endowment Fund, which was created in response to litigation over environmental contamination at the company's former plant in Hopewell, Virginia, was in substance an environmental penalty that the company ...

The court holds that it lacks jurisdiction over landowners' suit seeking to compel the U.S. Forest Service and other government agencies to reopen the scoping process under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in conjunction with a power company's proposal to construct a high-voltage transmi...

The court holds that the Farmers Home Administration (FmHA) need not prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) for the construction of a drinking water reservoir whose only significant effect on the human environment will be beneficial. The FmHA conducted an environmental assessment (EA) of th...

A magistrate judge holds that the U.S. Department of the Air Force abused its discretion when it failed to include the impact of a new state-managed air-to-ground training range in an environmental impact statement (EIS) prepared under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to evaluate the env...

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 affirms a district court order directing the U.S. government to release, under §2001(k)(1) of the Fiscal Year 1995 Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Relief and Rescissions Act, all timber sale contracts offered or awarded between October 1, 1990, and July 27, 1995, in any...

The court holds that a federal statutory requirement that holders of unpatented mining claims pay $100 per claim in 1993 and 1994 or else forfeit their claims did not effect an uncompensated taking of claimholders' property in violation of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The fee replac...

The court refuses to approve a proposed consent decree requiring the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to issue a notice of proposed revisions to its hazardous waste identification rule by August 15, 1995, and to issue its final rules by December 15, 1996. The court first holds that a state...

The court holds that salvage timber sales that had not yet been advertised were "in preparation" under the Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Assistance and Rescissions Act's (Rescissions Act's) waiver of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requirements. Environmental groups challenged th...

The court holds that the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) does not require the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to consider the master plan for an airport's expansion in an environmental assessment (EA) of the upgrade of one runway. The court first holds that the issue is not moot, even...