A district court vacated the the U.S. Forest Service's approval of an open-pit copper mining operation in the Coronado National Forest that included the dumping of approximately 1.9 billion tons of mine waste across over 2,000 acres of the forest. Environmental groups and tribes argued the Service m...

A state high court reversed a summary judgment for a natural gas producer in a challenge to the interpretation of leases it entered into with North Dakota. Before the lower court, the producer challenged the North Dakota Department of Trust Lands' conclusion that the producer had improperly calculat...

A state high court affirmed a partial summary judgment for landowners in a challenge to an oil company's use of their land to extract natural gas from neighboring properties. The landowners argued that the company's lease did not allow it to use their land to extract oil and gas from neighboring min...

The D.C. Circuit vacated the Mine Safety and Health Administration's (MSHA's) 2018 amendment to a 2017 safety standard that required mine operators to examine areas before miners began work and record any conditions that could adversely affect workers' safety and health. Union groups argued the amen...

A district court denied the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration's (PHMSA's) motion to dismiss a challenge to the agency's pipeline inspection regulations. An environmental group argued that PHMSA's existing regulations did not encompass all oil and gas pipelines that crossed feder...

A state appellate court reversed the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's order denying an oil and gas permit to a real estate company to drill an exploratory oil well in the Everglades. The company argued that the Department erred in substituting its factual findings for the administrat...

The Tenth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part a lower court's decision in a challenge to a natural gas pipeline company's expired easement on tribal land. The pipeline company appealed the district court's granting of summary judgment to tribal members on their trespass claims, arguing tha...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed a summary judgment rejecting a mining association's challenge to an Oregon law that prohibits the use of motorized mining equipment in rivers and streams containing essential salmon habitat. The association argued that the law was field preempted by the federal 1872 Mining...

The Fourth Circuit vacated both an incidental take statement issued by FWS and a right-of-way permit issued by the National Park Service (NPS) for construction of a natural gas pipeline that intersects the Blue Ridge Parkway. Environmental groups argued that the take limits set by FWS in its Inciden...

The Fourth Circuit vacated and remanded BLM's decision granting a right-of-way through federal land for construction of a pipeline and the U.S. Forest Service's decision to amend the Jefferson National Forest Land Resource Management Plan to accommodate the right-of-way and pipeline construction. En...