The Supreme Court rules, five to four, that an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation requiring the wetting of buildings containing asbestos during demolition is not an emission standard within the meaning of §112(c) of the Clean Air Act. The trial court therefore correctly dismissed an i...

In a suit challenging a provision of the New York Environmental Conservation Law which requires that non-accessory billboards be removed within a six-and-a-half-year amortization period, the New York Court of Appeals rules that the statute is constitutional as applied and remands the case to the low...

The New York Court of Appeals affirms the validity of a municipal zoning ordinance that bans the erection of non-accessory billboards and requires that all existing non-accessory billboards be removed within three years. The authority of the state or a subdivision thereof to enact such ordinances wi...

In an oral opinion, the court grants plaintiffs' request for a preliminary injunction against defendants' acceptance of bids for the leasing of tracts of the outer continental shelf off the Massachusetts coast for oil and gas exploration and development. Balancing the potential harm to the Great Ban...

On an emergency appeal from the preliminary injunction issued in Massachusetts v. Andrus, 8 ELR 20187 (D. Mass. Jan. 28, 1978), the First Circuit declines to reverse the district court's ruling and thereby reinstate the outer continental shelf oil and gas lease sales which had been scheduled for the...

The Fifth Circuit reverses a lower court's decision that the Corps of Engineers' denial of a dredge and fill permit was neither arbitrary nor capricious. After an extended statutory analysis, the court concludes that the applicants are mistaken in contending that the relevant standard of judicial re...

The Ninth Circuit affirms a lower court's decision denying all relief in a suit challenging the construction of a proposed airport on the grounds of alleged violations of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Airport and Airway Development Act. Stating that NEPA is essentially a proce...

Upon direct review of a determination of the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that the intervenor utility had met its burden of proof under §316 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) in seeking an exemption from applicable thermal discharge criteria in connect...

The court denies two petitions challenging the decision of the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to approve the state of Ohio's postponement of the attainment date in its state implementation plan (SIP) for the control of particulate emissions. Petitioner utilities do not ch...

The court affirms the decision of the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that a 1965 statute directing maximum feasible pollution control measures for Burns Waterway Harbor on Lake Michigan has no effect on the issuance of a national pollutant discharge elimination system per...