Mayor and City Council of Ocean City, Maryland v. U.S. Department of the Interior
A district court granted in part and denied in part motions to dismiss a challenge to federal agencies' approval of a construction and operations plan for a wind project off the coast of Maryland and Delaware. A Maryland city, nearby communities, industry groups, businesses, advocacy groups, and oth...
Louisiana Shrimp Ass'n v. Biden
A district court denied a shrimping advocacy group's motion for summary judgment in a challenge to NMFS' 2019 rule requiring turtle excluder devices on skimmer trawl vessels greater than 40 feet in length operating in inshore waters. The group argued the agency failed to justify revoking the pr...
Hoffman v. United States Department of Treasury
A district court dismissed a lawsuit brought by Kansas landowners and the city of Rossville challenging construction of a nearby large-scale industrial solar power project. The plaintiffs argued tax credits provided under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) incentivized the project, and sought to...
Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice v. United States Department of the Navy
A district court granted in part and denied in part the Navy's motion to dismiss a lawsuit concerning a decades-long radioactive waste cleanup at a naval shipyard in San Francisco. An environmental group argued that the Navy violated the cleanup agreement by rejecting initial strontium samples ...
Center for Biological Diversity v. United States Bureau of Reclamation
A district court denied summary judgment for environmental groups in a challenge to the Bureau of Reclamation's application of provisions of the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act governing certain kinds of contracts for water delivery from the federal Central Valley Project...
Center for Biological Diversity v. United States Fish and Wildlife Service
A district court granted in part environmental groups' motion for summary judgment in a lawsuit concerning their 2017 petition to FWS to revise the critical habitat for the endangered Mount Graham red squirrel. The groups argued FWS' delay in resolving their petition was "unreasonable" in violation ...
United Cook Inlet Drift Ass'n v. National Marine Fisheries Service
A district court dismissed a lawsuit brought by a fishing group challenging NMFS' adoption of an amendment to a fisheries management plan (FMP) for salmon fisheries in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) off the coast of Alaska. The group argued the amendment violated the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA) be...
Idaho Conservation League v. Bonneville Power Administration
The Ninth Circuit denied environmental groups' challenge to the Bonneville Power Administration's (BPA's) decision to spend only 10% of its excess financial reserves on measures to protect fish and wildlife. The groups argued BPA violated its obligations under §4(h)(11)(A) of the Pacific Northwest ...