The Ninth Circuit, 2-1, reversed summary judgment for the Bureau of Reclamation and Santa Maria Water District in a lawsuit concerning the endangered Southern California steelhead. Environmental groups argued the agencies' operation of a dam in the Santa Maria River watershed interfered with the ste...
A district court granted in part and denied in part an oil company's motion to dismiss a CWA and RCRA citizen suit brought by an environmental group. The group alleged 14 counts against the company, arguing it violated the CWA and RCRA by failing to prepare its bulk storage and fuel terminal in New ...
The Third Circuit affirmed dismissal of a challenge to the Delaware River Basin Commission's ban on high-volume hydraulic fracturing in the Delaware River Basin. Pennsylvania state senators, a state caucus, and several municipalities argued the Commission exceeded its authority under the Delaware Ri...
A district court denied summary judgment for a Maine lobstermen group in a challenge to NMFS' 2021 biological opinion (BiOp) that both authorized a series of federal fisheries, including the lobster fishery, and implemented a conservation framework designed to reduce the fisheries' impact on right w...
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 ...
A district court vacated two rights-of-way that BLM issued to a company in 2020 to transport water through an existing gas pipeline across federal lands. Environmental groups sought vacatur, arguing the rights-of-way violated FLPMA, NEPA, and the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). BLM agreed...
The New Mexico Supreme Court overturned regulations promulgated by the State Game Commission in 2017 that outlined a process for landowners to obtain a certificate allowing them to close public access to segments of public water flowing over private property. Outdoor recreation advocates challenged ...
A district court affirmed DOI’s decision to postpone oil and gas lease sales in the first quarter of 2021 in response to the president’s issuance of Executive Order No. 14008 pausing new lease sales on federal lands. The state of Wyoming and industry groups challenged DOI’s decisions to postpo...
A district court remanded a lawsuit challenging FWS’ decision to downgrade a rare species of parrot from endangered to threatened and to issue a §4(d) rule under the ESA allowing for limited import and export of the bird without an ESA permit. An animal advocacy group sought vacatur, arguing FWS�...
The Fifth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part a district court’s dismissal of a lawsuit concerning a 2019 Texas law that allows only owners of existing transmission lines in the state to build, own, or operate new lines that connect to existing lines. A company seeking to enter the state...