The court upholds the dismissal of a complaint against the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) involving a 1986 settlement agreement that allocated refunds of crude oil overcharges. Under the agreement, the refunded overcharges would be apportioned between the parties to the settlement agreement, which ...

The court upholds an Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) permit allowing a coal company to mine roughly 1,100 acres in the Cumberland River watershed of northeastern Tennessee. An environmental group argues that the environmental assessment is deficient in failing to consider ...

The court denies a motion to remand to Louisiana state court individuals' class action against a company for the alleged seepage of mercury from one of its facilities. In addition to suing the company in state court, the class filed suit against the state environmental agency for failing to monitor,...

The court holds that the final environmental impact statement (EIS) the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) prepared in connection with its plan to offer long-term oil and gas leases in a portion of Alaska complies with the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act. Environmentali...

The court holds that petitioners lack standing to challenge a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) rule that revised regulations governing the exemption standards for the transportation of radioactive material. The petitioners argue that the NRC violated the National Environmental Policy Act in prepa...

The court holds that the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) cumulative impact analyses prepared in conjunction with two gold mining permits it issued to a mining company violates the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). BLM prepared an environmental impact statement (EIS) for each permit. The fi...

The court affirms a lower court decision denying environmental groups' motion to preliminarily enjoin a highway expansion project in Wisconsin. The groups argue that the project violates the Administrative Procedure Act, the Clean Water Act, the Federal-Aid Highway Act, and the National Environmenta...

The court holds that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers took the requisite "hard look" at the environmental and economic impacts of a project that would deepen the Columbia River's navigation channel from 40 feet to 43 feet and add new sites for the disposal of dredged materials. The court concludes t...

The court upholds a lower court decision that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' environmental assessment (EA) for a section of the Atchafalaya Basin, a flood control area in Louisiana, complies with the National Environmental Policy Act. A nonprofit organization of commercial crawfishermen suggested...

The court dismisses as moot a chemical association's challenge to California's pesticide registration laws. The association claimed that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act preempts the state registration laws, but the lower court disagreed. While the association's appeal of that...