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The Supreme Court’s AEP Decision: Snatching Climate Change Solutions Victory From the Jaws of Defeat

In today’s politically polarized environment, legislative and judicial actions tend to be characterized as either stunning victories or crushing defeats. The next-day media reporting and hyperbolic press releases on the U.S. Supreme Court’s American Electric Power et al. v. Connecticut et al. (AEP) decision involving actions to reduce greenhouse gas pollution reflect this trend. Certainly, the U.S.

West Coast Seafood Processors Assn. v. Natural Resources Defense Council

The Ninth Circuit held that a seafood processor association may not intervene in environmental groups' lawsuit challenging the National Marine Fisheries Service's program to preserve groundfish species off the coast of California, Oregon, and Washington. A lower court denied the association's m...

Guam Preservation Trust v. Gregory

A district court, in an underlying NEPA suit, denied the Navy's request for a voluntary remand for further consideration of the future location of a firing range complex in Guam. Plaintiffs argued that a voluntary remand to the agency is only appropriate where either there have been intervening...

Courts Shed Light on the Application of CERCLA's Bona Fide Prospective Purchaser Defense

Purchasers who knowingly take title to real property found to be contaminated with hazardous substances during pre-purchase due diligence may be subject to liability for remediation costs under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund), unless those purchasers are able to establish CERCLA’s bona fide prospective purchaser defense (the BFPP Defense).

Sierra Club v. Jackson

The D.C. Circuit upheld the dismissal of a CAA citizen suit challenging EPA's failure to take action to prevent the construction of three proposed pollution-emitting facilities in Kentucky. The lower court held that there was no mandatory duty to act and granted EPA's motion to dismiss for lack...

Assessing Jurisdiction Under the New Clean Water Act Guidance

Two decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court have created enormous confusion around the question of what U.S. waters are subject to federal regulation. On May 2, EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers published proposed joint guidance that intends to clarify this issue by describing how the agencies will identify waters protected by the CWA.

Mildenberger v. United States

The Federal Circuit upheld the dismissal of landowners' suit against the United States seeking compensation for the alleged taking of their riparian and upland property rights stemming from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers activities to control water levels in Lake Okeechobee. The landowners' takin...

Del Cerro Mobile Estates v. City of Placentia

A California appellate court dismissed a mobile home park owner's complaint challenging a city's environmental impact report (EIR) for a planned railroad grade separation project under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Below, the county transportation authority intervened in the ...

Natural Resources Defense Council v. Environmental Protection Agency

The D.C. Circuit vacated an EPA guidance document addressing obligations of regions still in nonattainment of the 1997 one-hour ozone NAAQS. The guidance binds EPA regional directors and thus qualifies as final agency action. As such, it amounts to a legislative rule issued in violation of the ...