The Fourth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision denying a motion to dismiss environmental groups' National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) claim against the director of the South Carolina Department of Transportation concerning the construction of a bridge. The director argued that the claims aga...
The First Circuit denied a petition for review of the Federal Aviation Agency's (FAA's) decision to reroute aircraft approaching and departing Logan Airport in Boston. Peer-reviewed noise studies showed that the impact on noise levels would not be significant. Accordingly, the FAA did not err in fin...
The D.C. Circuit upheld a final order issued by the Department of the Interior (DOI) requiring an energy company to retroactively recalculate royalties owed to the U.S. government under its lease to extract coalbed methane from federal land in Wyoming. In its disputed order, DOI held that the market...
The D.C. Circuit denied a petition to review the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC's) interpretation of the term "markets" as used in an amendment to the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act that created exceptions to a utility's mandatory purchase obligation to buy energy from qualifyi...
The U.S. Supreme Court held that the Tariff Act's antidumping duties on foreign merchandise sold in the United States at less than its fair value apply to imports of low enriched uranium obtained by domestic utilities in return for cash and unenriched uranium delivered to a foreign enricher. Section...
The Fifth Circuit held that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) was not required to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) in conjunction with its establishment of a conservation easement on city land. After FWS prepared an environmental assessment (EA) for a proposed wildlife refuge i...
The D.C. Circuit upheld the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC's) decision to grant a state agency a new 50-year license to operate a hydroelectric facility near Niagara Falls. Several communities in western New York argued that FERC's licensing decision was arbitrary and capricious and un...
The Third Circuit held that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) need not examine the environmental impact of a hypothetical terrorist attack on a nuclear power facility during its review of an application to relicense that facility. New Jersey's environmental agency, in its petition for review o...
The Fourth Circuit reversed a lower court order vacating certain base flood elevation determinations adopted by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for Richland County, South Carolina. The lower court vacated the determinations because FEMA failed to timely publish notice of the determination...
A district court upheld the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM's) decision to grant oil and gas drilling permits in south-central Wyoming. BLM's decisions were not arbitrary, capricious, or otherwise unlawful under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). BLM took the requisite hard look at envir...