The Ninth Circuit holds that Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) approval of coal leases of 31,000 acres granted by the Crow Tribe to Westmoreland Resources is a "major federal action" despite the purely fiduciary role of BIA in Indian affairs. Finding that an EIS concerning only the initial 770-acre fiv...
Affirming the district court's dismissal for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, the court holds that NEPA does not apply to a project in which the only federal participation is the distribution of revenue sharing funds to aid local communities in financing the project. For th...
A Department of Housing and Urban Development EIS discussing the effects of redevelopment of a three-block area in a city's central business district is adequate, even though it fails to analyze the impact of use of eight additional blocks for parking facilities as proposed in the city council maste...
On defendants' motion to dismiss, a federal district court rules that it has subject matter jurisdiction over a suit to enjoin a state bank from demolishing a building located in an area that has been entered in the National Register of Historic Places pending preparation of a NEPA impact statement ...
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is enjoined from approving an airport layout plan for runway expansion at Logan Airport in Boston pending compliance with its own regulations concerning environmental assessment. Plan approval is a prerequisite to FAA funding for a runway construction projec...
The court upholds the validity of Interior Department regulations severly restricting motorized traffic from traversing the beach of the Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Virginia. The United States gained full title and full interest to the refuge beach by condemnation in 1938, and ...
A petition for review of the sulfur oxide emission limitations contained in Pennsylvania's Clean Air Act implementation plan is remanded to the EPA Administrator for the third time for further consideration of the limitations' economic and technological feasibility. Because low-sulfur coal is unavai...
The Clean Air Act does not authorize the EPA Administrator to impose sanctions or institute a civil action against a state or its officials for failure to enforce the transportation control provisions of the state implementation plan. The statutory language and legislative history are ambiguous as t...
The Organic Act of 1897 provides that only dead and mature or large timber may be cut in national forests, and requires in addition that all such trees be individually marked prior to harvesting. The U.S. Forest Service is therefore prohibited from contracting for or allowing clearcutting in the Mon...
The case is remanded to the district court with instructions to vacate that part of the Amended Final Judgment which denied plaintiffs' request for attorney fees in connection with their successful litigation against the proposed Three Sisters Bridge. The lower court erred in summarily denying plain...