The Supreme Court of Ohio upheld the Ohio Secretary of State's invalidation of three county ballot measures that, if approved by voters, would have banned high-volume hydraulic fracturing as a method of oil and gas extraction in those jurisdictions. Despite the secretary's conclusion to the contrary...

The Ninth Circuit vacated and remanded EPA's unconditional registration of insecticides containing sulfoxaflor, ordering the Agency to obtain further studies and data regarding the effect of sulfoxaflor on bees, as required by EPA regulations. FIFRA prohibits the use or sale of pesticides that lack ...

The Fifth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision that investors who bought BP stock soon after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill may file a class action against the oil company for alleged misrepresentations regarding the oil flow rate after the spill, but that investors who purchased stock befo...

A district court largely dismissed claims challenging California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard, a collection of regulations promulgated by the California Air Resources Board to implement provisions of California Assembly Bill 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. In September 2013, the Ninth Ci...

A California court held that revised "curtailment letters" that the state water board sent to irrigation districts and water appropriators in the Central Valley no longer violate due process, and therefore denied the districts' motions for a preliminary injunction. The court previously ruled that th...

The Ninth Circuit ordered EPA to respond to an administrative petition filed nearly nine years ago requesting a ban on the pesticide chlorpyrifos. EPA has spent nearly a decade reviewing the petitioner's data and arguments. In response to a previous court order directing EPA to specify a date for is...

The Seventh Circuit upheld EPA's approval of revisions to Illinois' SIP, thereby rejecting challenges raised by Indiana. Indiana argued that the relaxation of Illinois' vehicle emissions testing program will decrease the likelihood that the Chicago area—which includes two Indiana counties—will a...

The Ninth Circuit upheld California's "shark fin law", which bans the possession, sale, and distribution of shark fins within the state. An association claimed that the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act preempts the law. But they failed to identify any actual conflict between ...