The Third Circuit affirmed two district courts' orders remanding back to start court two climate liability suits bought against oil companies. Delaware and the city of Hoboken sued the companies in state court for state-law torts. The companies removed the suits to federal court, arguing removal was...
The Ninth Circuit vacated FERC orders that held the California Water Resources Control Board had waived its authority to ensure certain hydroelectric projects complied with state water quality standards. The Board and environmental groups petitioned the court to review FERC's findings that the Board...
The Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court order remanding to state court two climate liability suits against numerous oil and gas companies. The city and county of Honolulu and the county of Maui sued in state court, arguing the companies knew about climate change, understood the harms that energy...
The U.S. Supreme Court held, 6-3, that President Barack Obama's EPA had exceeded its statutory authority under §111(d) of the CAA when it promulgated the Clean Power Plan to address carbon dioxide pollution from existing power plants. States and coal companies had petitioned for review of the plan,...
The Nevada Supreme Court held, 4-3, that the state's top water official had authority to approve a groundwater management plan (GMP) that deviated from the doctrine of prior appropriation for the over-appropriated Diamond Valley Hydrologic Basin. Senior rights holders in the basin sought to invalida...
The D.C. Circuit upheld FERC's approval of a dam operator's flood protection plan for a nearby water pump station in North Carolina. A city petitioned for review of FERC's approval of the plan, a state-imposed condition of its water quality certification under the CWA, which involved raising the pum...
The First Circuit again affirmed a district court order that remanded to state court Rhode Island's climate change lawsuit against oil companies. The district court concluded that none of the companies' grounds for removal—federal officer, federal question, Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, admir...
In an emergency order, the U.S. Supreme Court denied several states' application to vacate the Fifth Circuit's stay of a district court ruling that had enjoined federal agencies from implementing interim estimates on the social cost of greenhouse gas emissions.
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The Tenth Circuit reversed a district court's denial of a motion to dismiss a CWA citizen suit concerning the release of contaminated water from an inactive gold mine in Colorado. Nearby farmers filed suit in a New Mexico district court, alleging several state-law claims. A hazardous waste managemen...
In an en banc decision, the First Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part summary judgment for an environmental group in a CWA citizen suit against developers of a construction site in Massachusetts. The group argued the developers violated the CWA by failing to comply with the construction ge...