A district court denied summary judgment for conservation groups in a challenge to BLM's authorization of six lease sales for oil and gas development in the western United States. The groups argued BLM failed to take the requisite "hard look" when analyzing the cumulative impact of greenhouse gas em...

A district court denied the state of Alaska's and North Slope Borough's challenge to NMFS' decision not to delist the Arctic ringed seal as an endangered species following their 2019 petition. The plaintiffs argued NMFS failed to credit new information from FWS' analysis, failed to credit the Interg...

In an unpublished opinion, the Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part summary judgment for FWS in a challenge to the Service's issuance of an incidental take regulation for polar bears living along Alaska's Beaufort Sea. Environmental groups argued FWS failed to satisfy the Marine Mamma...

The Fifth Circuit vacated two orders EPA issued under TSCA that prohibited a plastics company from manufacturing or processing long-chain perfluoroalkyls (PFAS) during its fluorination process. In March 2022, EPA charged that the company's fluorination process was subject to a recently promulgated s...

A magistrate judge recommended summary judgment be granted in part and denied in part for environmental groups in a challenge to the Forest Service's 2018 revision to the forest management plan for Flathead National Forest. The groups argued the Forest Service and FWS failed to rationally consider t...

The Tenth Circuit affirmed dismissal of an environmental group's petition to review FWS' revised land management plan for the Rio Grande National Forest. The group argued FWS' biological opinion (BiOp), which concluded the plan would not likely jeopardize the Canada lynx's continued existence, faile...

The Third Circuit granted petitions to review FERC orders allowing the administrator of a 2024/2025 capacity auction to apply a new rule retroactively to a pending action to avoid a spike in electricity prices. Electric suppliers and their trade groups argued the orders violated the filed rate doctr...

A district court granted NMFS' motion to dismiss a challenge to its decision to issue several incidental take authorizations (ITAs) for wind farm development off the coasts of New Jersey and New York. A nonprofit group argued NMFS violated the Marine Mammal Protection Act because the ITAs had more t...

A district court denied summary judgment for a trade group representing ranchers and beef producers in a challenge to FWS' denial of the group's petition to remove the southwestern willow flycatcher from the endangered list under the ESA. The group argued FWS' denial, which concluded the southwester...

In an en banc decision, the Ninth Circuit, 6-5, affirmed a district court order denying a tribal group's motion for preliminary injunction against the U.S. government's transfer of federal land within Tonto National Forest to a mining company. The land is a site of spiritual value to the Western Apa...