The court dismisses a petition challenging a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule allowing the director of an approved state landfill to grant variances from EPA criteria for sanitary landfills. The environmental group challenging the rule lacks associational standing because none of its ...

The court holds that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers complied with the National Environmental Policy Act in connection with its plan to preserve an aquifer in the Grand Prairie Region in East Central Arkansas, a major rice producing area. The plan includes the construction of a system that would pu...

A court reverses a lower court decision denying animal activists' motion to strike state employees' workplace violence protective orders under the state's anti-SLAPP statute. Following a nighttime protest at one of the employees' homes, a trial court issued temporary restraining orders against the a...

The court upholds the U.S. Forest Service's decision allowing the salvage of dead and/or dying trees on up to 250 acres to proceed without the preparation of an environmental impact statement or environmental assessment. The methodology the Forest Service used in promulgating the categorical exclusi...

A court partially grants the U.S. motion to collaterally estop defendants from denying their liability as owners and operators of the Armour Road Superfund site in North Kansas City, Missouri. Except for one of the defendants, prior actions against the defendants were final, or sufficiently final, t...

The court reverses the dismissal of a developer's suit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the Corps) in which it sought to compel the Corps to take action on its application to construct a span bridge under Nationwide Permit 14. The district court dismissed the claim, holding that its prior o...

A court holds that a timber company's procurement of a general permit for stormwater discharges stemming from its logging activities in Bear Creek, California, does not render an environmental group's Clean Water Act action against the company moot. The timber company failed to meet its burden to pr...

The court rejects a mining association's statutory and constitutional claims challenging a 1999 Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) rule defining "valid existing rights." The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act prohibits new surface coal mining operations on certain lan...

The court holds that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by categorically refusing to consider the environmental effects of a potential terrorist attack in connection with its approval of a proposed spent fuel storage installation. The NRC ar...

The court denies a petition for review challenging the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary's decision to grant a license for a liquefied natural gas facility in the Gulf of Mexico. The DOT's environmental impact statement for the project complies with the National Environmental Policy ...