The court holds that the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) §309, which preempts a state's statute of limitations if it provides a commencement date earlier than the federal commencement date, does not preempt Texas' 15-year statute of repose in a che...

A court holds that a city violated the California Environmental Quality Act in adopting revisions to its general plan with regard to unleashed dogs at a state beach. The city's initial study failed to adequately describe the impacts of off-leash dog use at the beach. Once the informational requireme...

The court dismisses various parties' challenges to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' operation of the Missouri River main stem reservoir system and associated U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) wildlife assessments. The court dismissed as moot several claims concerning the conditional summer low f...

The court holds that an oil company's insurer must indemnify the company for environmental cleanup and abatement costs ordered by a state administrative agency. In a previous case concerning another insurer of the company, the court held that the insurer's duty to indemnify the company for "all sums...

The court holds that an insurance company need not indemnify a county for expenses it incurred in responding to an administrative agency order requiring it to remediate environmental contamination at a county landfill. The nonstandard, excess third-party liability policy at issue obligates the insur...

A court holds that portions of an environmental impact report (EIR) for a water quality improvement program in the San Francisco Bay comply with the California Environmental Quality Act. The court rejected the majority of challenges that concerned the adequacy of the EIR's analysis of impacts on the...

A court orders a lower court to grant a county's motion to dismiss on ripeness grounds an inverse condemnation action brought by a land developer. The developer argued that a land use regulation, as applied to its property, constituted a taking under the federal and California Constitutions. The cou...

A court held that a city's approval of an environmental impact report (EIR) for a proposed industrial/business park violated the California Environmental Quality Act. Although no other defects were found, the EIR did not sufficiently discuss the adequacy of water supplies for the project. Certain wa...

A court reverses the state transportation agency's approval of an environmental impact report (EIR) for a proposed freeway interchange project in connection with a proposed hotel and casino complex on Native American lands and remanded the EIR for additional analysis. By analyzing the project's traf...

A court holds that California Penal Code 653o, which bans the import of products made from certain animals, including kangaroos, into California is preempted by federal law and by general federal objectives of kangaroo conservation. The statute as applied in this case conflicts with federal law and ...