The Federal Circuit denied the U.S. government's petition to rehear a case requiring the federal government to pay a water district for diverting water to protect endangered steelhead trout. A concurring judge explained that this case, as it was presented on appeal, is one in which a physical, not a...

The Supreme Court of California affirmed in part and reversed in part an appellate court decision reversing a trial court's grant of summary judgment in favor of excess insurance companies in the state's action to obtain coverage for property damage liability imposed in a federal lawsuit concerning ...

The Ninth Circuit held that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) violated the Washington state Hazardous Waste Management Act (HWMA) in its management of mixed radioactive and hazardous waste, commonly known as TRUM, at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. DOE argued that it no longer has an obligation u...

A California appellate court affirmed a trial court's ruling in favor of tuna companies in a state lawsuit seeking to require the companies to warn pregnant women and women of childbearing age that they are exposed to methylmercury when they consume canned tuna. Proposition 65, the Safe Drinking Wat...

The Eighth Circuit upheld as moot a lower court decision denying a hunting club's motion to preliminarily enjoin a power company from constructing a 600-megawatt pulverized coal-fired power plant in Hempstead County, Arkansas, without first obtaining a prevention of significant deterioration permit ...

The D.C. Circuit denied an environmental group's petition for review of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) air quality regulations governing the exclusion of emissions data from state reporting requirements during exceptional events such as natural disasters. The rule allows states to list s...

A California appellate court reversed a lower court decision that a city violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in approving a residential and commercial development project. The lower court properly ruled that the city violated the Planning and Zoning Law because the city's genera...

The Ninth Circuit reversed and remanded a lower court decision denying the trucking industry's motion to preliminarily enjoin two California ports from implementing "concession agreements" designed, among other things, to reduce diesel emissions from trucks servicing container facilities at the port...

A district court preliminarily enjoined the construction of a $113 million computer center in Berkeley, California. A citizens group raised serious questions going to the merits of its claim that the project is a "major federal action" under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Moreover, ir...

A district court held that environmental groups' citizen suit against the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) for violating the Clean Air Act, the Tennessee state implementation plan, and related regulations in conjunction with its operation of coal-fired power plant in Bull Run, Tennessee, must procee...