A district court upheld critical habitat protections for the marbled murrelet, a small seabird found in the Pacific Northwest that nests in old-growth forests. FWS designated critical habitat for the tri-state population of marbled murrelets in 1996. In 2010, FWS determined that delisting the murrel...

The Ninth Circuit dismissed a conservation group's lawsuit challenging DOI's diversion of water from Icicle Creek, a tributary of the Wenatchee River and the Columbia River, to the Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery without a state permit. The group argued that DOI violated §8 of the Reclamation Ac...

The D.C. Circuit denied petitions to downlist the straighthorned markhor, a subspecies of wild goat found in Pakistan, from endangered to threatened. The petitioners—safari clubs, hunters, and international conservationists—argued that FWS violated the ESA and APA by failing to issue a 12-month ...

The D.C. Circuit ordered NRC to resume processing of DOE's pending license application to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act requires NRC to issue a final decision approving or disapproving the application within three years of its submission. DOE submitted its appli...

A Texas appellate court held that an insurance company has a duty to defend its insured in underlying lawsuits stemming from a sinkhole formed by the insured's waste disposal well operations. The insurance company argued that it had no duty to defend because the insurance policy contains a pollution...