The Ninth Circuit held that NMFS may collect cost recovery fees for the Pacific groundfish fishery from individual members of the Pacific whiting catcher-processing sector, but that NMFS’ calculation of the 2014 cost recovery fee for that sector was inconsistent with its own regulation. Under the ...

A district court ordered EPA to promulgate revised water quality standards for Washington state by September 15, 2016, or, in the alternative, by November 15, 2016, if the state submits its own water quality standards by September 15. A key factor in determining the requisite water quality standards...

The Ninth Circuit upheld NMFS' 2013 quota regulations for Pacific whiting. NMFS calculated the amount of fish harvesters' and fish processors' initial share of the total allowable catch based on their participation in the fishery prior to 2003 and 2004, respectively. A fish harvester and fish proces...

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 The areas withdrawn make up roughly 88% of the total discharge a...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 Supreme Court of California held that the state may enter and conduct environmental and geological studies and testing on more than 150 privately owned properties in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta that the state might seek to acquire for construction of two new tunnels to deliver fresh water f...