A district court dismissed environmental groups' lawsuits challenging BLM's decision to authorize the leasing of certain public lands in northeastern Wyoming for coal mining operations. The groups, who claim that BLM failed to prepare an adequate EIS before authorizing the leasing of the tracts at i...

The Eighth Circuit held that costs a developer incurred to reduce pollution on a property it owns in Brainerd, Minnesota, that had formerly been owned by a railway company were not removal costs and thus not recoverable under the Minnesota Environmental Response and Liability Act (MERLA). Although n...

The Fifth Circuit upheld an EPA rule partially approving and partially disapproving revisions to Texas' SIP concerning civil penalties for excess emissions resulting from startup, shutdown, and malfunction (SSM) activities. Environmental petitioners sought review of EPA's decision to approve a revis...

A district court held that a minor may bring a climate change lawsuit against the state of New Mexico under the public trust doctrine. The minor made a substantive allegation that, notwithstanding statutes enacted by the New Mexico legislature that enable the state to set air quality standards, the ...

A Pennsylvania appellate court partially struck down Act 13, which pertains to oil and gas operations in the Marcellus Shale, as unconstitutional. The Act repealed Pennsylvania’s Oil and Gas Act and replaced it with a codified statutory framework regulating oil and gas operations in the Commonweal...

The Supreme Court of Wisconsin held that under state law, a town may not impose conditions on a livestock siting permit to protect surface and groundwater. The state legislature has strictly limited the ability of political subdivisions to regulate the livestock facility siting process. The town ove...