A district court granted oil companies' motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the cities of Oakland and San Francisco alleging that the companies make and sell products that create a public nuisance—global-warming-induced sea-level rise—when combusted. The cities further alleged that the oil co...

A district court held BLM violated NEPA when it approved 13 oil and gas leases covering 19,788 acres in the Santa Fe National Forest without considering the leases' impacts on climate change. BLM decided an EIS was not warranted based on its FONSI. But BLM failed to take a hard look at the impacts o...

A district court ordered EPA to comply with a FOIA request concerning the EPA Administrator's statement on TV that he did not believe human activity was a primary cause of climate change. Following his remarks, an environmental group filed a FOIA request for EPA records “relied upon by Administrat...

A district court denied the U.S. government's motion to stay discovery in a lawsuit brought by a group of youths against the U.S. government for failing to protect them from climate change. The government argued that the group is not entitled to discovery because their claim must proceed under the A...

A Texas court, ruling on a petition for pre-suit discovery, held that it would have jurisdiction over a major oil corporation's potential lawsuit against several California cities that have filed suit against it relating to climate change. The company's potential claims would allege, among other thi...

A district court dismissed an oil company's lawsuit seeking to stop the New York and Massachusetts Attorneys General (AGs) from investigating whether the company misled investors and the public about its knowledge of climate change and the potential effects that climate change may have on its busine...

A district court held that BLM violated NEPA by failing to adequately consider climate change in the resource management plans (RMPs) for Buffalo, Wyoming, and Miles City, Montana, both located within the coal-rich Powder River Basin. BLM's EISs failed to consider any alternative that would decrease...

A district court granted California cities' motions to remand their climate change tort actions against oil and gas companies back to state court. Although their state law claims raise national and perhaps global questions, they should not have been removed to federal court. Removal based on federal...

A district court held that San Francisco and Oakland, California, may not remove back to state court their climate change public nuisance actions against several oil companies. The defendants—the largest cumulative producers of fossil fuels worldwide—timely invoked federal common law as a ground...

The Ninth Circuit held that NOAA did not go beyond its authority when it took climate change into account when considering the ESA status of the Arctic ringed seal. In 2012, NOAA listed the Arctic ringed seal as threatened based on projected sea ice loss. Oil and gas companies challenged the ruling,...