In an amended order, a district court granted FWS' and NMFS' motion to voluntarily remand a series of regulations enacted by the Trump Administration that modified how the Services implement the ESA. Environmental groups, states, and cities had argued the regulations violated the ESA, the APA, and N...
The D.C. Circuit dismissed a petition to review NRC's decision to issue an amended materials license authorizing uranium production for a DOE demonstration program at a facility in Ohio. Nonprofit groups argued NRC violated NEPA by failing to prepare an EIS and by failing to address the environmenta...
The Ninth Circuit, 2-1, reversed summary judgment for the Bureau of Reclamation and Santa Maria Water District in a lawsuit concerning the endangered Southern California steelhead. Environmental groups argued the agencies' operation of a dam in the Santa Maria River watershed interfered with the ste...
The Third Circuit affirmed dismissal of a challenge to the Delaware River Basin Commission's ban on high-volume hydraulic fracturing in the Delaware River Basin. Pennsylvania state senators, a state caucus, and several municipalities argued the Commission exceeded its authority under the Delaware Ri...
A district court denied summary judgment for a Maine lobstermen group in a challenge to NMFS' 2021 biological opinion (BiOp) that both authorized a series of federal fisheries, including the lobster fishery, and implemented a conservation framework designed to reduce the fisheries' impact on right w...
A district court remanded a lawsuit challenging FWS’ decision to downgrade a rare species of parrot from endangered to threatened and to issue a §4(d) rule under the ESA allowing for limited import and export of the bird without an ESA permit. An animal advocacy group sought vacatur, arguing FWS�...
The Fifth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part a district court’s dismissal of a lawsuit concerning a 2019 Texas law that allows only owners of existing transmission lines in the state to build, own, or operate new lines that connect to existing lines. A company seeking to enter the state...
A district court denied a request by conservation groups to halt all construction on a transmission line project from Iowa to Wisconsin pending the transmission companies' appeal of a prior order enjoining construction of a section of the line across the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and...
A district court on remand granted environmental groups' request for a permanent injunction in an ESA citizen suit concerning a logging project on private land in Oregon. In initial proceedings, the groups sought a preliminary injunction, arguing the project would result in the taking of marbled mur...