The Fourth Circuit affirmed dismissal of a challenge to CEQ's 2020 final rule that affected how federal agencies conduct reviews under NEPA. Environmental groups filed suit shortly after the rule was promulgated and several weeks before it took effect, bringing nine APA claims and one allegation tha...

The D.C. Circuit vacated a license issued by FERC for operation of a hydroelectric dam on the Susquehanna River in Maryland. The state of Maryland issued a CWA §401(a)(1) certification to the dam's operator in 2018 with conditions. The operator challenged the certification, and the parties reached ...

A district court vacated in part the Forest Service's 2017 record of decision (ROD) that closed approximately 196,000 acres of recommended wilderness areas in Clearwater National Forest to motorized vehicles and eliminated motorized use on 38 miles of existing trails. An environmental group had chal...

A district court ordered a pipeline company and Native American tribe to submit a joint proposal on how to prevent a "catastrophic rupture" of a crude oil and natural gas pipeline running through the tribe's reservation in northern Wisconsin. The tribe initially brought public nuisance and trespass ...

A district court granted DOD's motion to dismiss a challenge to its decision to halt fence construction along the U.S.-Mexico border in response to President Biden's proclamation declaring an end to the national border emergency. A corporation that owns land adjacent to the fence argued that DOD's d...

A district court denied a state prison's motion for partial summary judgment in a CWA citizen suit brought by a California county. The prison argued the county did not have statutory standing to sue under the CWA because the Act's definition of "citizen" did not include counties. The court concluded...

The Third Circuit affirmed a lower court's dismissal of a religious group's challenge to FERC's approval of a natural gas pipeline along land owned by the group. The group argued that the use of its land to facilitate extraction, transportation, and use of fossil fuels violated its religious beliefs...

In an unpublished opinion, the Ninth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for the Forest Service in a challenge to its planned road construction project near Mount St. Helens to address the threat of a nearby lake's potential breach. Environmental groups argued the project violated NEPA and the Nationa...

A district court denied summary judgment for environmental and tribal groups in a challenge to the Army Corps of Engineers' decision to issue permits under the CWA and the Rivers and Harbors Act for a project to replace sections of an oil pipeline in Minnesota. The groups argued the Corps' decision ...

A district court granted summary judgment for an oil and gas company in a decades-long suit concerning the company's oil lease on land sacred to the Blackfeet Nation in Lewis and Clark National Forest. On the latest remand from the appellate court, the company challenged the Secretary of DOI's 2016 ...