The D.C. Circuit held that NRC's transfer of authority to New Jersey over nuclear materials within the state was arbitrary and capricious. The NRC may transfer regulatory authority over classes of nuclear materials located within a state to the government of that state. But here, the agency failed t...

The D.C. Circuit vacated and remanded a DOE rule requiring decorative fireplaces to meet certain energy efficiency standards under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act. The rule defined "vented hearth heater" to include both decorative fireplaces and fireplace heaters, thereby subjecting both to t...

The Fifth Circuit held that DOI did not violate a district court order preliminarily enjoining enforcement of a drilling moratorium following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon accident in the Gulf of Mexico by issuing a second drilling ban. Shortly after the spill, at the president's direction, DOI prohibi...

The Eleventh Circuit affirmed a lower court decision dismissing a county's lawsuit challenging a Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) directive advising Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to refrain from purchasing mortgages encumbered with certain first-priority lien obligations under the Property Assesse...

An Indiana appeals court reversed the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission's approval of a purchase and sales agreement for "substitute natural gas" an energy company plans to produce at its new coal gasification plant. The contract meets the common law definition of an enforceable contract. It als...

The Second Circuit upheld the dismissal of two lawsuits challenging a Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) directive directing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to take "prudential actions" to protect themselves against risks raised by Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs that impose priority- o...

A New York court struck down a city's local ordinance that placed a two-year moratorium on hydraulic fracturing within its borders. The city argued that it issued the ordinance under its local police powers and that it was therefore not required to refer the law to the county planning board prior to...

A district court dismissed a lawsuit filed by the state of New York and several environmental groups challenging the federal government's decision not to conduct an environmental review under NEPA while the Delaware River Basin Commission drafts and considers regulations that would allow hydraulic f...

The Ninth Circuit denied petitions challenging FERC orders that retroactively reset the market rates that were charged in the California electricity markets during the state's energy crisis of 2000 and 2001. After California deregulated and restructured its electricity market in the mid-1990s, price...

A district court denied environmental groups' motion to preliminarily enjoin the construction of segments of the Keystone XL pipeline. After an oil company's original request to complete the Keystone XL pipeline was denied by President Obama in 2011, the company sought to divide its original interco...