The D.C. Circuit upheld EPA's rule designating certain areas in Utah as nonattainment for the 2006 24-hour fine particulate matter (PM2.5) standard. Petitioners—two counties, three cities, and an aerospace and defense company—challenged the inclusion of parts of Tooele and Box Elder Counties wit...
The Ninth Circuit held that DOE's environmental assessment of a prospective "biosafety level-3" facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory complied with NEPA. DOE took the requisite "hard look" at the threat of a direct terrorist attack at the facility. DOE also reasonably exercised ...
The Fourth Circuit dismissed environmental groups' NEPA claim against the Federal Highway Administration and the Virginia Department of Transportation concerning improvements to a highway. The groups claimed that the agencies are attempting to foreclose consideration of environmentally friendly ...
The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision dismissing a conservation group's claims that the State Department violated its NEPA and ESA obligations in conducting annual certifications of countries exempted from the general ban on shrimp imports. Section 609(b) of Public Law No. 101-162 prohib...
A district court upheld EPA's rule setting numeric nutrient criteria for Florida except in two respects: the stream criteria and the default downstream-protection criteria for unimpaired lakes. In 2009, recognizing that the state's narrative criterion was insufficient to control Florida's widesp...
A New York court upheld a town's zoning amendment that bans hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking) within its jurisdiction. The zoning amendment was enacted in response to a petition from town residents concerned about hydrofracking's impact on ground and surface water supplies. An energy company ...
The U.S. Supreme Court reversed a state court decision that Montana may charge rent from an electric company that owns dams on the Missouri, Madison, and Clark Fork rivers. The Montana Supreme Court held that title to the riverbeds passed to Montana when it became a state in 1889 and awarded alm...