The Federal Circuit held that the United States may not use the "unavoidable delay" defense in breach of contract actions stemming from its failure to accept spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from the nation's nuclear utilities. The Standard Contract provided that DOE was to begin accepting SNF no later than...
A district court denied a motion to dismiss landowners' lawsuit against a gas company for alleged property damage in the form of contaminated well water resulting from Marcellus Shale gas drilling activity occurring on property adjacent to the landowners' property. The landowners provided facts that...
An Iowa court held that a solar energy company is not a public utility under state law. A city sought to enter into a prospective purchaser agreement with the company to supply a portion of the city's electricity needs at certain city premises. On the company's petition for a declaratory order, the ...
A district court held that BLM violated NEPA when it sold four oil and gas leases on approximately 2,700 acres of federal land in Monterey and Fresno counties without considering impacts from hydraulic fracturing. The leases are located in California's Monterey Shale Formation, which is estimated to...
The Ninth Circuit reversed in part and affirmed in part lower court orders in cases arising out of the energy crisis of 2000-2002 that were consolidated into a multidistrict litigation proceeding. Plaintiffs—retail buyers of natural gas—alleged that defendants—natural gas traders—manipulated...
A district court held that individual ingredients of hydraulic fracturing formulas are trade secrets and do not need to be publicly disclosed. The Wyoming Public Records Act does not define trade secrets, but the Wyoming oil and gas commission's policy for evaluating trade secrets is reasonable and ...
The Ninth Circuit dismissed a lawsuit challenging a Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) directive that prevents Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae from buying mortgages on properties encumbered by liens made under property-assessed clean energy (PACE) programs, which finance environmental improvements on ...
Maine's highest court vacated a state permit authorizing the construction of a wind turbine project on Saddleback Mountain. Twenty-one days before the state environmental agency approved the permit, the state's environmental board adopted an amendment that, among other changes, lowered the nighttime...
A district court upheld BLM's approval of a record of decision (ROD) and its grant of a right of way (ROW) allowing the construction of a utility-scale wind project in California's Sonoran Desert. Conservation groups challenged BLM's actions under NEPA and FLPMA. But BLM's decision to grant the ROW ...
A district court upheld BLM's approval of a record of decision (ROD) allowing the construction of 112 wind turbines in an area that contains cultural and biological significance to a Native American tribe. BLM's decision to approve the ROD was reasonable as it considered all relevant factors and pro...