The D.C. Circuit held that FWS violated NEPA when it issued an incidental take permit for the Indiana bat, an endangered species, in connection with a wind farm project in Ohio. Because the farm may pose a danger to the bat, the developer applied for an incidental take permit and submitted a conserv...

The D.C. Circuit upheld EPA's decision to invoke its veto authority under CWA §404(c) and withdraw two disposal sites from a CWA permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a mountaintop coal mining project in West Virginia. The areas withdrawn make up roughly 88% of the total discharge a...

The Fourth Circuit upheld the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' issuance of a dredge and fill permit to a surface coal mine. Environmental groups challenged the adequacy of the Corps' environmental review, arguing that the Corps violated NEPA and the CWA by failing to consider evidence that surface coal...

A district court held that the U.S. Forest Service violated NEPA in connection with its approval of the "CuMo" project, a five-year mining exploration project located within the Boise National Forest in Idaho. The Forest Service failed to take a hard look at the project's impacts on the Sacajawea’...

The Ninth Circuit reversed and remanded a lower court's dismissal of a lawsuit filed by commercial fishermen challenging FWS' decision to terminate the southern sea otter translocation program off the coast of California. Due to the threatened species' vulnerability to extinction from oil spills, en...