A magistrate judge recommended that a challenge to the city of Portland's amendments to its land use code imposing certain limits on the construction of new or expanded bulk fossil fuel terminals be dismissed. The state of Montana and fuel industry trade groups argued the amendments violated the dor...
In an unpublished opinion, the Ninth Circuit vacated a district court's judgment reinstating a 2016 moratorium on new coal leasing on public lands that was lifted by a DOI secretarial order in 2017. Environmental groups, several states, and a tribe argued BLM's final EA and FONSI violated NEPA. DOI ...
The D.C. Circuit dismissed for mootness a nonprofit group's petition to review FERC's determination that a proposed liquefied natural gas facility in Port St. Joe, Florida, fell outside the Commission's jurisdiction under §3 of the Natural Gas Act. The group's members argued they would suffer econo...
The D.C. Circuit on remand reinstated its prior judgment in a challenge to FERC's issuance of a certificate for construction of a natural gas pipeline through the Appalachian Mountains. Property owners in the proposed path sued the pipeline owner in district court, raising constitutional challenges ...
BLM announced its intent to revise the Bureau's policies and procedures for compliance with NEPA, various executive orders, and CEQ's NEPA implementing regulations by proposing to remove four administratively established categorical exclusions (CEs) and to incorporate two CEs established by Congress.
EPA adopted DOE's categorical exclusion for methane gas recovery and utilization systems under NEPA.
The Fourth Circuit reversed a district court order abstaining from ruling on constitutional claims brought by mineral interest owners challenging amendments to West Virginia's oil and gas conservation law. Plaintiffs argued the amendments, which for the first time authorized "unitization of interest...
The Natural Resources Conservation Service gave notice that it intends to issue a series of revised conservation practice standards in the National Handbook of Conservation Practices.
A district court denied an environmental group's motion for summary judgment in a challenge to the Forest Service's approval of a restoration project in Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest. The group argued the Service violated NEPA and its implementing regulations in designing, analyzing, and implem...
The Third Circuit denied petitions to review FAA's FONSI decision approving construction of a new terminal at an airport in New Jersey. Petitioners argued FAA erroneously determined that the project did not expand the terminal and would not induce air traffic growth, failed to consider the cumulativ...