A California appellate court held that the state's water resources board did not violate state law when it voted 2-1 to increase water quality permit fees for the 2011-2012 fiscal year. When the board voted for the increase, two of the seats were vacant. A building association challenged the increas...

The Colorado Supreme Court held that state law does not allow a trial court to issue a modified case management order, such as a "Lone Pine" order, that requires a plaintiff to present prima facie evidence in support of a claim before the plaintiff can exercise its full rights of discovery under the...

The D.C. Circuit, in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA, No. 12-1146, 44 ELR 20132 (2014), amended a prior decision in which it upheld four EPA rulemakings governing greenhouse gases (GHGs). The four rules are: (1) EPA's endangerment finding, in which i...

A district court dismissed a town's Massachusetts Oil and Hazardous Material Release Prevention and Response Act claim against the corporate spinoffs of Old Monsanto, the sole manufacturer of PCBs in the United States between 1935 and 1979. After discovering PCBs in some of the area schools, the tow...

The Third Circuit upheld a lower court decision dismissing, on standing grounds, a doctor's claim challenging the constitutionality of a Pennsylvania law that limits a doctor's ability to obtain information about the mixture of chemical fluids used during hydraulic fracturing when treating patients ...

A Massachusetts court dismissed residents' lawsuit seeking a declaratory judgment that the state's environmental agency failed to comply with §3(d) of the Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA). The GWSA is a legislative scheme designed to address the effects of climate change in Massachusetts by prom...