A Pennsylvania court upheld an environmental hearing board order dismissing a municipal authority's challenge to a gas drilling permit that the Department of Environmental Protection issued to an oil and gas exploration company. The authority argued that the permitted drilling will result in violati...
A New York appellate court upheld a lower court decision invalidating a water sales agreement that would have allowed a town to sell approximately one million gallons per day from its water supply to an energy company for drilling and hydraulic fracturing in Pennsylvania. Despite the town's conclusi...
A district court dismissed a lawsuit filed against the State Department in connection with two upgrade projects for a major oil sands pipeline that crosses the U.S-Canada border. One project would replace an existing pipeline segment, and the second would construct an interconnection between two exi...
The D.C. Circuit held that FERC violated the Federal Power Act (FPA) when it issued a preliminary permit for a hydroelectric project in Polk County, Iowa, to a private developer. The case involved FERC's interpretation of FPA §7(a), which grants preferential treatment to state and municipal applica...
The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision that BLM complied with NEPA and FLPMA in allowing the construction of a utility-scale wind project in California's Sonoran Desert. BLM sufficiently evaluated and disclosed the environmental impacts of the wind energy facility project under NEPA. Envi...
A district court, on motions for reconsideration and clarification of a prior remand order, vacated and remanded DOI's record of decision (ROD), EIS, and biological opinion (BiOp) concerning a large wind energy project in Nevada. In the prior remand court, the court held that DOI failed to fully exp...
A Texas appellate court upheld a lower court decision dismissing a family's nuisance and negligence claims against two oil companies for alleged health and property damage stemming from hydraulic fracturing operations near their home. To overcome the defendant companies' no-evidence summary judgment...
A district court struck down portions of a town ordinance, deemed a "Community Bill of Rights," that sought to ban the disposal of waste materials from oil and gas extraction within its borders. The town is a "second class township" under state law. As such, it is subject to Pennsylvania's Second Cl...
A district court held that the U.S. Forest Service did not violate NEPA or the APA when it reissued a 30-year special use permit allowing an energy company to continue operating a portion of a 1,100-mile pipeline through the Huron-Manistee National Forest. Built in 1953, the pipeline transports crud...
A district court preliminarily enjoined BLM from enforcing its hydraulic fracturing rule for federal and Native American lands. Various industry, state, and Native American petitioners challenged the rule, arguing that BLM exceeded its authority in promulgating the regulations, and the court agreed....