The Fifth Circuit vacated EPA's disapproval of Texas's flexible permit program under the CAA. Texas submitted the program to EPA as a revision to its SIP and as a new feature of the state's minor new source review (NSR) regime. Under the program, modifications to facilities could be made without add...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed in part a lower court decision dismissing an environmental group's lawsuit challenging the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's annual operating plans for the Glen Canyon Dam along the Colorado River under NEPA, the ESA, and the APA. The group was concerned about the dam's impact ...

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...

A district court denied environmental groups' motion to preliminarily enjoin the construction of segments of the Keystone XL pipeline. After an oil company's original request to complete the Keystone XL pipeline was denied by President Obama in 2011, the company sought to divide its original interco...

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...

The Ninth Circuit held that the U.S. Forest Service's EIS for a forest thinning research project in the Pringle Falls Experimental Forest within the Deschutes National Forest complies with NEPA. The project allows logging and controlled burning on roughly 2,500 acres of the Forest to reduce the risk...

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 The Act repealed Pennsylvania’s Oil and Gas Act and replaced it with a codified statutory framework regulating oil and gas operations in the Commonweal...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 Third Circuit denied petitions for review under NEPA challenging the FAA's approval of an expansion project at the Philadelphia International Airport. The FAA prepared an EIS and conducted an air quality analysis to meet the overlapping requirements of NEPA and the CAA, and EPA submitted comment...

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...