Expertise and Discretion: New Jersey's Approach to Natural Resource Damages
With a Department of Environmental Protection that predates the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, New Jersey has always been at the forefront of combating pollution, becoming only the third state to consolidate all environmental protection and conservation into one cohesive agency on April 22, 1970, and paving the way for environmental protection nationwide with the passage of the New Jersey Spill Compensation and Control Act (Spill Act) in 1976.
Citizens for a Healthy Community v. United States Bureau of Land Management
A district court enjoined approved permits and suspended applications for new permits for oil and gas development in Colorado until BLM completes its analysis of reasonably foreseeable indirect impacts. In a previous ruling, the court concluded that BLM had failed to sufficiently explain the scope o...
Nestlé Waters North America, Inc. v. Osceola, Township of
In an unpublished opinion, a state appellate court reversed a lower court decision that ordered a Michigan township to issue a zoning permit to a food and beverage company to construct a well pumping station on agricultural land. The lower court had concluded that the company's proposed pumping stat...
National Parks Conservation Association v. Semonite
A district court upheld the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' approval of a permit for an already-constructed 17-mile transmission line after the D.C. Circuit found that the Corps had failed to prepare an EIS for the line in violation of NEPA. The court found that vacatur was not appropriate because rev...