A California appellate court affirmed a lower court decision prohibiting the inclusion of styrene and vinyl acetate as possible carcinogens on the state's Proposition 65 list. The Proposition 65 list is limited to chemicals for which it has been determined, either by the Office of Environmental Heal...
A California appellate court held that a city council may not skip California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review for a development project by using Election Code §9214(a) to approve the project via a voter petition instead of holding an election under §9214(b). When a development project is a...
An Indiana appeals court reversed the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission's approval of a purchase and sales agreement for "substitute natural gas" an energy company plans to produce at its new coal gasification plant. The contract meets the common law definition of an enforceable contract. It als...
A district court held that the CAA preempts individuals' tort law action against a coal-fired power plant for property damage stemming from the plant's air emissions. In essence, the individuals' complaint attacks the plant's air emissions and asks the court to regulate them. But the CAA provides a ...
A California appellate court held that a city's certification of an environmental impact report (EIR) for a development project covering 2,600 acres of undeveloped land for single-family dwelling units and a village center violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Below, the trial co...
New York's highest court held that the New York City School Construction Authority's EIS for the construction of a campus of four public schools in an area formerly used as a railroad yard violated the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA). Because the site contains significant soil and gro...
A California appellate court held that a local ballot measure requiring a city to seek competitive bidding for future trash service contracts was not a "project" under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) subject to environmental review. A city resident alleged that the city violated CEQA...
A California appellate court upheld a county's approval of a project to expand an existing wood veneer manufacturing facility in order to permit cogeneration of electricity for resale. Environmental and citizens groups filed a petition for review, claiming that the environmental impact report for th...
A California court dismissed all but three claims raised by an environmental group challenging a county's environmental impact report for a fairground expansion project. The group raised concerns about impacts of the proposed development on wetlands, biological resources, traffic, greenhouse gases, ...
A district court held that utilities violated CAA §112(g) by upgrading an existing power plant in Lamar, Colorado, from a natural gas-fired plant into a coal-fired one without receiving a maximum achievable control technology (MACT) determination. When the state environmental agency first issued th...