The Fifth Circuit granted EPA's request to transfer to the D.C. Circuit Texas' petition for review of the Agency's call for revisions to the state's SIP because its prevention of significant deterioration (PSD) provisions fail to control greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases have not always bee...

A district court ordered the Bureau of Ocean Exploration Management, Regulation, and Enforcement to act on five pending deepwater drilling permit applications within 30 days. The permit applicant met all the necessary requirements for a preliminary injunction. The Outer Continental Shelf Lan...

The Second Circuit held that the Connecticut Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Act (IWWA) and the Connecticut Environmental Protection Act (CEPA), as well as municipal regulations that impose permit requirements for cutting trees on protected wetlands, are not preempted by the Federal Aviatio...

The Third Circuit, in a $113 billion lawsuit against an oil company concerning environmental pollution in the Amazon, affirmed in part and vacated in part a lower court order granting the oil company's application to engage in discovery for use in a proceeding before an Ecuadorian court unde...

A district court held that an environmental group may go forward with its CWA claim against a gas and electric company for unpermitted stormwater discharges from its service yards, but dismissed the group's RCRA claim. The company filed a motion to dismiss, arguing that its service yards do ...

The Ninth Circuit held that a timber company has standing to challenge EPA's decision to retain the Redwood Creek in Northern California as an impaired water body under CWA §303(d). The company has suffered a reduction in the economic value of its property in the Redwood Creek watershed, and the co...

A California appellate court invalidated a state policy prohibiting development seaward of the most landward historical position of the mean high tide line. The policy is an invalid underground regulation because it was not promulgated as a regulation under the APA. Although the state agency that ad...

A district court, on motions for summary judgment, held that the California Department of Transportation is liable to the United States for damages caused to a lake and creek due to runoff from a state-run highway that cuts across federal property—the Presidio in San Francisco. A 1938 permit autho...

A district court held that the CAA preempts a city transit employee's negligence and strict liability claims against a company for injuries stemming from diesel exhaust fumes. The employees alleged that the design of the company's buses violated the emissions standards set out in the CAA and...

The Ninth Circuit, in a case concerning the NRC's approval of a proposed interim spent fuel storage installation at the Diablo Canyon Power Plant, held that the NRC's refusal to grant a nonprofit group access to sensitive information in a closed adjudicatory hearing was not arbitrary, capric...