A district court enjoined the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from continuing with its Industrial Canal Lock Replacement Project in New Orleans until it complies with NEPA and the CWA. The canal is a manmade waterway that provides access from Lake Pontchartrain and the Gulf Intercoastal Waterway to...

A California appellate court held that a county complied with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) prior to approving the development of a large beverage distribution facility project. The plaintiff argued that the county failed to give the regional air quality district proper notice ...

The Ninth Circuit remanded the FAA's decision not to prepare an EIS in conjunction with its approval of an airport runway construction project. Relying chiefly on two cases involving airport improvements—neither of which involved a new runway—the FAA argued that an EA need not account for the gr...

The D.C. Circuit denied a mining company's petition for review challenging two FERC orders certifying and authorizing the construction of a natural gas pipeline above the mining company's longwall underground coal mine. Longwall mining causes the surface above to subside in a planned, controlled...

A district court preliminarily enjoined the California transportation agency's proposal to widen a highway that runs through old-growth redwood trees in Richardson Grove State Park. Environmental groups challenged the project under NEPA, the Department of Transportation Act, the Wild and Scenic Rive...

A district court dismissed environmental groups' suit for declaratory and injunctive relief challenging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' nationwide permitting program, and, specifically, its use throughout the Appalachian region to issue permits for mining activities. The groups alleged CWA, N...

A district court, in an underlying NEPA suit, denied the Navy's request for a voluntary remand for further consideration of the future location of a firing range complex in Guam. Plaintiffs argued that a voluntary remand to the agency is only appropriate where either there have been intervening...

A district court dismissed an environmental group's claim that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated NEPA, the CWA, and the APA by granting a CWA §404 permit to a railroad company without completing an EIS. The Corps' finding that the chosen site was the least environmentally damaging prac...

A California appellate court dismissed a mobile home park owner's complaint challenging a city's environmental impact report (EIR) for a planned railroad grade separation project under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Below, the county transportation authority intervened in the ...

A district court vacated two internal DOI guidance documents that address and limit the use of §390 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which establishes a "rebuttable presumption" that a categorical exclusion from review under NEPA would apply to certain oil and gas development activities on federal...