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...

A California appellate court held that a newly enacted state law that prohibits counties from restricting or limiting the importation of solid waste into a privately owned facility in the county based on the waste's place of origin preempts a voter-approved 1984 initiative measure that severely rest...

The Seventh Circuit held that the trustees of a fund established to finance and oversee the cleanup of a contaminated site near Zionsville, Indiana, may go forward with their lawsuit under CERCLA to recover cleanup costs from the former owners of the site. To the extent that the trustees seek to rec...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part a lower court decision granting summary judgment in favor of homeowners and the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection in a CERCLA and RCRA case involving soil and groundwater contamination under a Las Vegas shopping center. The homeowners...

A district court upheld DOI's approval of oil spill response plans an oil company submitted for drilling operations in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. Despite environmental groups' arguments to the contrary, an environmental review was not required under NEPA since the approvals do not constitute a m...

The Ninth Circuit, in an unpublished opinion, affirmed in part and reversed in part a lower court decision denying an environmental group's motion to preliminarily enjoin a BLM-approved timber sale. The district court did not abuse its discretion by ruling that the group failed to raise serious ques...

The Ninth Circuit held that BLM's resource management plan (RMP) for the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument complied with NEPA and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) but violated the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). The RMP, which authorizes roads, airstrips, and...

The Supreme Court of Nebraska held that a 2010 state law that changed the manner in which wind energy generation facilities in Nebraska are taxed is constitutional. As part of legislation passed to encourage the development of wind generation facilities in Nebraska, the state legislature enacted a n...

The Ninth Circuit, on remand from the U.S. Supreme Court, held that pollution exceedances detected at monitoring stations in Los Angeles County were sufficient to establish the county's liability for NPDES permit violations under the CWA. In Los Angeles County Flood Control Dist. v. Natural Resource...