Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice v. Federal Aviation Administration
The Ninth Circuit, 2-1, denied a petition for review challenging FAA's decision that found no significant environmental impact stemming from construction and operation of an air cargo facility at the San Bernardino International Airport. The state of California, environmental groups, a union, and in...
Mining Our Future Critical Minerals: Does Darkness Await Us?
We are told the transition to a zero-carbon economy will depend upon the United States’ ability to assure a sufficient supply of rare earths and minerals such as cobalt, nickel, or lithium. The Biden Administration is intent on promoting some new form of a critical mineral policy, and calls for reforming the 1872 Mining Law have persisted for well over one hundred years. This Article is designed to provoke a meaningful conversation about a critical minerals policy informed by our past.
Cascadia Wildlands v. Warnack
A district court granted environmental groups' motion to preliminarily enjoin a logging project in the Willamette National Forest in areas affected by wildfires. The groups argued the Forest Service could not use the road repair and maintenance categorical exclusion (CE) to avoid NEPA review of the ...
Bristol Bay Economic Development Corp. v. Pirzadeh
A district court granted EPA's motion to remand and vacate the Agency's 2019 decision to withdraw a proposed determination that would have restricted a copper and gold mine from using certain waters at disposal sites for dredged and fill material. The court found that neither retention of jurisdicti...
Evans v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
The D.C. Circuit ordered FERC to consider whether to stay a certificate for a pipeline that would carry natural gas from western Canada to a proposed export terminal in Oregon in light of the developer's decision to postpone development.
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Rebutting Administrator Wheeler's Denial of a NAAQS for Greenhouse Gases
In 2009, when carbon dioxide (CO2) levels were at 387.43 parts per million, the Center for Biological Diversity and 350.org submitted a citizen petition calling on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take steps necessary to institute a national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under §§108-110 of the Clean Air Act (CAA). For 12 years, the petition was simply ignored. Then, the day President Donald Trump left office, outgoing EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler issued a letter denying the petition.