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...

A district court denied environmental groups' petition for review challenging BLM's and the U.S. Forest Service's approval of several oil and gas lease sales in the San Juan Basin of northern New Mexico. The groups, who were concerned that the leases would contribute to ozone emissions, impact publi...

The D.C. Circuit upheld the Surface Transportation Board's imposition of environmental mitigation conditions in its approval of a "minor" railroad merger. The case involved the acquisition of a small "non-Class I" railroad by a larger "Class I" railroad company. Because the acquisition invol...

A district court held that the United States is an arranger and operator under CERCLA with regard to the waste disposal sites at four phosphate mines in the Caribou-Targhee National Forest. The United States conditioned its approval of mine plans on requiring the lessees to perform specific reclamat...

A district court held that the U.S. Forest Service's travel management plan for the Salmon-Challis National Forest violates NEPA. Environmental groups argued that the travel plan fails to ensure that motor vehicle use is properly sited and managed on the Forest in order to minimize adverse environme...