The Ninth Circuit upheld the dismissal of a trucking association's federal preemption challenge to a California environmental regulation on diesel trucks. The regulation requires heavy-duty diesel trucks, whose emissions contribute significantly to particulate matter and ozone pollution, to be upgra...

A California appellate court ordered the dismissal of an environmental group's California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) lawsuit against a city in connection with emergency storm drain repair and revegetation projects. Following a storm drain failure in 2009 that caused significant erosion along a...

A district court dismissed a flood protection board's lawsuit against 88 oil and gas companies for damages stemming from coastal erosion along a "buffer zone" in southeast Louisiana. The companies do not owe a legal duty to the board, arising under either Louisiana law or the Rivers and Harbors Act,...

The Texas Supreme Court reinstated a jury verdict in favor of a waste disposal facility in a trespass case filed against it by a neighboring rice farm. At trial, the farm argued that deep subsurface wastewater from the facility trespassed beneath its property, but the jury returned a verdict in the ...

A Wisconsin court remanded to the state utility commission two components of a 2013 order involving the state's distributed generation tariff for customer-owned generation, i.e., net metering customers. The tariff applies to customers who self-generate energy and compensates them for energy injected...

The Ohio Supreme Court held that a city may not restrict oil and gas drilling within its borders. The city sought to enforce five local ordinances limiting drilling within its borders after an energy company had already obtained the necessary state permits. The ordinances, however, conflict with sta...

A district court held that TVA did not violate NEPA when it decided to replace two coal-fired power generators with a natural gas-fueled power generating plant. TVA was replacing the generators to comply with mercury and air toxics standards. It issued an EA and FONSI for the project, and a coal ass...

A Pennsylvania court affirmed a lower court order granting the Pennsylvania Department of the Environment's (PaDEP's) petition to investigate, remediate, and clean up contamination on private property under the Pennsylvania Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act (HSCA). The property became contaminated after a...

The New Jersey Supreme Court held that the general six-year statute of limitations for injury to real property does not apply to private claims for contribution made pursuant to the New Jersey Spill Compensation and Control Act (Spill Act). The case arose after a commercial property owner sought to ...

The Ninth Circuit reversed a lower court decision denying environmental groups' request for attorneys fees after they successfully challenged OSM's grant of a coal mining permit revision. Below, the groups' lawsuit was consolidated with other actions challenging the permit revision, which was ultima...