Wildearth Guardians v. Zinke
A district court granted in part environmental groups' motion for summary judgment in a challenge to BLM authorization of oil and gas leasing on federal land in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. The groups argued that the EAs and FONSIs issued violated NEPA because BLM failed to take a "hard look" at the...
Wildearth Guardians v. Provencio
The Ninth Circuit affirmed a summary judgment for the U.S. Forest Service in a challenge to the agency's authorization of travel management plans that permitted motorized game retrieval within a mile of every open road in three districts of the Kaibab National Forest. Environmental groups argued the...
Gold King Mine Release in San Juan County, Colorado on August 5, 2015
A district court denied EPA's motions to dismiss a lawsuit brought by two states and a Native American tribe seeking to recover response costs from the 2015 Gold King mine spill that sent millions of gallons of acid mine drainage into the Animas and San Juan Rivers. EPA argued that it retained sover...
National Parks Conservation Ass'n v. Semonite
The D.C. Circuit reversed a district court's decision upholding the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' approval of a transmission line that would cross the historic James River. Conservation groups argued that the Corps should have prepared an EIS for the project because it would significantly impact his...