United States v. Ameren Missouri
A district court ordered an electric utility company to obtain a PSD permit to address CAA violations at its coal-fired power plant in Festus, Missouri. EPA argued that the company increased the risk of negative health impacts and premature deaths by releasing excess tons of sulfur dioxide from its ...
New York v. Environmental Protection Agency
The D.C. Circuit vacated EPA's 2018 update to the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR). States and environmental groups argued that EPA violated the CAA by failing to require upwind states to reduce their contribution of ozone precursors to downwind states in accordance with the deadline by which ...
National Audubon Society v. United States Army Corps of Engineers
A district court granted summary judgment to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in a challenge to the Corps' approval of construction of a terminal groin to mitigate shoreline erosion in a North Carolina town. A conservation group first argued that the third-party contractor who submitted the permit a...
Strategizing Against the Flame: What’s Next for California’s Wildfires?
The 2018 wildfire season was the deadliest and most destructive on record in California, destroying thousands of structures. Gov. Gavin Newsom created a strike force to develop a comprehensive strategy to address the destabilizing effect of wildfires on the state’s electric utilities. In April 2019, the strike force issued a report outlining a vision for clean energy policies to reduce the impacts of climate change on wildfire risk, and in July, the newly created Commission on Catastrophic Wildfire Cost and Recovery released its recommendations.
Southeast Alaska Conservation Council v. United States Forest Service
A district court preliminarily enjoined the U.S. Forest Service from allowing any timber harvesting, road construction, or other ground-disturbing activities associated with the Service's authorization of a timber sale in Tongass National Forest. Environmental groups, whose members use areas that wo...
Protect Our Communities Foundation v. LaCounte
The Ninth Circuit affirmed a summary judgment in favor of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and its approval of an industrial-scale wind facility in southern California. A conservation group argued that BIA improperly relied on BLM's EIS for the project because BIA failed to explain its decision no...