A New York court dismissed a lawsuit seeking to compel the state to finalize its supplemental EIS on hydraulic fracturing. The trustee to a bankrupt energy company filed the lawsuit, claiming that the company's bankruptcy and inability to develop its mineral rights stem from the state's failure to f...

A Colorado court struck down a city's ban on hydraulic fracturing. In 2012, voters passed an amendment to the city charter that bans fracking and the storage and disposal of fracking waste within city limits. The oil and gas industry challenged the ban, arguing that it was preempted. The court agree...

A Pennsylvania court severed in part and struck down in part certain provisions of Act 13, pertaining to oil and gas operations in the Marcellus Shale, that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court left undisturbed in its December 2013 decision invalidating portions of the law on constitutional grounds. On re...

The First Circuit vacated and remanded a lower court decision dismissing environmental groups' CWA claims against the operators of four hydroelectric dams along the Kennebec River. The groups alleged that the operators are in violation of their water quality certifications, and thus the CWA, because...

The Fourth Circuit held that a coal company may not assert the CWA's "permit shield" defense for discharges of selenium when it failed to disclose the presence of this pollutant during the permit application process. The company argued that because it disclosed the pollutants that it knew or had rea...

A California appellate court held that interim renewal contracts concerning BLM's ongoing provision of Central Valley Project water to California water districts are exempt from environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The purpose of the interim renewal contracts w...

The Iowa Supreme Court held that a solar energy company is not a public utility under state law. The case arose after a city sought to enter into a prospective purchaser agreement with the company to supply a portion of the city's electricity needs at certain city premises. On the company's petition...

The D.C. Circuit upheld EPA's and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Enhanced Coordination Process memorandum, which concerns CWA §404 mining permit applications, as well as an EPA guidance document relating to such permits, against challenges from the mining industry and two states. The Enhanced Co...

A district court held that a doctor lacks standing to challenge a Pennsylvania law that prohibits doctors from disclosing the mixture of chemical fluids used during hydraulic fracturing when treating patients for chemical exposure. Doctors have a professional and ethical obligation to communicate cr...