The Eighth Circuit affirmed, 2-1, summary judgment for a mining company in a lawsuit concerning the company's operation of a coal mine in North Dakota. Owners of an adjacent ranch argued the company violated the CAA by failing to obtain the proper construction permit for the mine and failing to impl...

A district court adopted a magistrate judge's recommendation and granted an environmental group's motion for partial summary judgment in a lawsuit concerning particulate matter emissions violations at an oil refinery in Indiana. The group brought a citizen suit under the CAA, arguing that the refine...

A district court denied plaintiffs' motion to preliminarily enjoin the city of Chicago from issuing any permits or approvals in connection with the relocation of a recycling facility from the north side to the southeast side of the city. Plaintiffs argued the city's relocation of the facility was di...

A district court denied the National Park Service's (NPS') motion to dismiss a challenge to its issuance of a policy memorandum concerning the use of electric-assisted bicycles (e-bikes) in national parks. Environmental groups argued the memorandum amended existing NPS regulations on bicycle use by ...

A district court granted summary judgment for a nonprofit group in a lawsuit seeking FOIA disclosure of records maintained by FWS regarding the import and export of wildlife. The group challenged the Service's redaction of certain information pursuant to a FOIA exemption for trade secrets and commer...

A district court denied motions for summary judgment in a lawsuit seeking FOIA disclosure of records regarding an order issued by the Secretary of the Interior concerning the federal coal program. An environmental group argued that DOI failed to conduct an adequate search for responsive records, fai...

The D.C. Circuit denied, 2-1, New Jersey's challenge to a rule promulgated by EPA on remand concerning the CAA's new source review (NSR) program. The state argued that EPA inadequately considered concerns stemming from the predictive and subjective nature of projected emissions calculations and adop...

The Fifth Circuit upheld a rule issued by the Consumer Product Safety Commission prohibiting the manufacture and sale of children's toys and childcare articles that contained concentrations of more than 0.1% of any one of five phthalates, but remanded the rule to the Commission to address two proced...

The U.S. Supreme Court reversed, 7-2, a circuit court ruling that draft biological opinions were not exempt from a FOIA request related to FWS' and NMFS' consultations with EPA for a proposed rule regarding cooling water intake structures. An environmental group submitted FOIA requests for the recor...

The D.C. Circuit vacated three provisions of EPA's 2018 rule implementing NAAQS for ozone. Environmental groups challenged four provisions of the rule: the interprecursor trading program, a provision allowing states to demonstrate compliance with the CAA's "reasonable further progress" milestone req...