The Ninth Circuit held that environmental groups lacked standing to compel the Washington State Department of Ecology and other regional agencies to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from the state's five oil refineries under the CAA. The groups claimed that the agencies failed to define emission li...

The Third Circuit affirmed a lower court decision vacating a 2009 settlement agreement between the U.S. Forest Service and environmental groups that banned oil and gas drilling in the Allegheny National Forest pending the completion of a multi-year, forestwide EIS under NEPA. The lower court had pre...

A district court dismissed environmental groups' claims that BLM failed to adequately consider climate change, global warming, and greenhouse gases (GHGs) in violation of NEPA before it approved oil and gas leases on federal land in Montana in 2008 and 2010. The groups argued that BLM's failure to f...

The D.C. Circuit dismissed as unripe a trade association's lawsuit challenging portions of a Federal Rail Administration (FRA) rule that requires qualifying rail carriers to submit an implementation plan to install a "positive train control" (PTC) system no later than December 31, 2015, on certain t...

The Fifth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision that the doctrine of res judicata bars individuals' trespass, nuisance, and negligence claims against numerous oil, coal, electric, and chemical companies for damages stemming from Hurricane Katrina. The individuals asserted that the companies' activ...

A Texas appellate court held that sovereign immunity bars an individual's lawsuit against the board members of a local reclamation district claiming that their activities caused a lake to be substantially drained during 2008 and for most of the years 2009 through 2011. As a governmental agency and p...

The Tenth Circuit dismissed as moot an environmental group's CAA citizen suit against an energy company for building a new coal-fired power plant in Pueblo, Colorado, without a valid construction permit. Although the project initially complied with all applicable federal and state laws when construc...

A district court dismissed environmental groups' lawsuits challenging BLM's decision to authorize the leasing of certain public lands in northeastern Wyoming for coal mining operations. The groups, who claim that BLM failed to prepare an adequate EIS before authorizing the leasing of the tracts at i...

The Fifth Circuit dismissed environmental groups' petitions challenging DOI's approval of 16 oil well exploration and development plans that were issued between March 29 and May 20, 2010, under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA). The groups argued that the agency failed to consider th...

The D.C. Circuit held unripe an oil and natural gas association's petition for review challenging a 2008 EPA regulation deregulating many hazardous secondary materials under RCRA. The association argued that EPA erred in not including in the deregulation a category of hazardous secondary materia...