A California appellate court upheld a county ordinance banning single-use plastic bags and imposing a fee on single-use paper bags against claims that the ordinance was enacted in violation of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The county determined that the ordinance was categorically...
A district court held unlawful BLM's methodology for assessing the impact of federal actions on the northern spotted owl as well as its failure to offer for sale a declared amount of timber from two western Oregon districts. Under the Oregon and California Lands Act of 1937 (O&C Act), once BLM d...
Maryland's highest court denied requests to reconsider two of its prior rulings in which it reversed a lower court's decision awarding residents punitive damages for emotional distress and medical monitoring. Below, the residents claimed that an oil company was responsible for contaminating their gr...
Maryland's highest court denied requests to reconsider two of its prior rulings in which it reversed a lower court's decision awarding residents punitive damages for emotional distress and medical monitoring. Below, the residents claimed that an oil company was responsible for contaminating their gr...
A California appellate court upheld a county's certification of an environmental impact report (EIR) regarding a proposed solar power development. A citizens group argued that the county violated the California Environmental Quality Act when it certified the EIR and approved the project because the ...
The Sixth Circuit vacated a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule exempting from the Clean Water Act's (CWA's) national pollutant discharge elimination system (NPDES) permitting requirements pesticides applied in accordance with the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act. The ...
The Eighth Circuit held that pollution exclusion clauses preclude an insurance company's duty to defend a lead producer in an underlying lawsuit alleging damages stemming from the release of hazardous wastes or toxic substances, but they do not preclude coverage in a lawsuit alleging that the lead p...