Wyoming v. United States Department of the Interior
A district court struck down BLM's 2016 rule promulgating new regulations to reduce natural gas waste during oil and gas production activities on federal land and Indian leases. States argued that the rule exceeded BLM's statutory authority and was otherwise arbitrary and capricious. The court found...
Optimus Steel, LLC v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
A district court denied a steel mill owner's motion to preliminarily enjoin construction of a gas pipeline in Texas. The owner argued that the Army Corps of Engineers authorized the construction in violation of the CWA, the ESA, and NEPA. The court found that the owner had not clearly demonstrated a...
Northern New Mexico Stockman's Ass'n v. United States Fish & Wildlife Service
A district court dismissed a challenge to FWS' designation of critical habitat for the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse. Southwestern ranchers argued that the Service underestimated the designation's economic impacts by not considering costs beyond the designation itself, in violation of the ESA. The...
Oceana, Inc. v. Ross
A district court remanded to NMFS for a third time in a decades-long lawsuit concerning the Service's incidental take statement (ITS) assessing the impact of dredge fishing on loggerhead sea turtles in the Atlantic. A conservation group argued that the Service's revised ITS responding to the court's...
Center for Biological Diversity v. Tennessee Valley Authority
A district court dismissed for lack of standing a challenge to the Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA's) rate change for customers in its seven-state service area. Environmental groups argued that TVA violated NEPA by enacting the rate change based on a deficient EA, by failing to consider the enviro...