A district court denied a water district's motion to intervene in an ESA lawsuit seeking protections for longfin smelt. The water district argued it had standing to intervene because its alleged injury—a reduction in water allocation—was economic, its injury was traceable to plaintiff's claims s...

The Eighth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part a district court ruling in an ongoing enforcement suit concerning air pollution at a utility company's coal-fired power plant in Missouri. EPA argued the company violated the CAA, Missouri's SIP, and its Title V permit by performing modificati...

The Fifth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part district court rulings in a collection of lawsuits concerning oil companies' decades of drilling activities along the Louisiana coast. Six Louisiana parishes filed suit in state court, arguing the companies violated the Louisiana State and Loca...

A Minnesota appellate court remanded a challenge to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's (MPCA's) grant of an air emissions permit for a proposed copper-nickel mine in northern Minnesota. Environmental groups argued the MPCA improperly issued the permit because the company receiving it did not i...

A district court denied a pipeline company's motion to dismiss a challenge to President Trump's issuance of a permit for construction of a cross-border segment of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. Environmental groups had argued the president's issuance of the permit violated the Property Clause, the Co...

The D.C. Circuit granted in part environmental groups' petition to review EPA's 2019 rule setting annual renewable fuel volume levels under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program. The groups argued that EPA's "aggregate compliance approach" for determining whether biofuel qualifies as renewable f...

The D.C. Circuit vacated in part EPA's 2019 rule lifting seasonal restrictions on the sale of higher-ethanol fuel. Petroleum industry groups challenged a specific section of the rule, in which EPA announced a new interpretation of when limits on fuel volatility under §7545(h)(4) of the CAA could be...

The Ohio Supreme Court affirmed an appellate court ruling in a lawsuit concerning Volkswagen’s efforts to cheat U.S. diesel emissions tests. Ohio sued the company, arguing its post-sale tampering with emissions control systems violated the state’s Air Pollution Control Act (APCA). The company mo...

The Third Circuit affirmed dismissal of a lawsuit concerning reporting requirements for emissions following fires at a steel facility near Pittsburgh. An environmental group argued the facility operator should have reported the emissions to the federal government pursuant to CERCLA in addition to re...

A district court dismissed two Pennsylvania state senators' challenge to the Delaware River Basin Commission's imposition of a moratorium on gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing in the Delaware Basin. The senators argued, among other things, that the moratorium exceeded the Commission's authority. ...