The D.C. Circuit dismissed a petition challenging an EPA rule issued under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) concerning ethanol fuel. The EISA directed EPA to promulgate regulations ensuring that transportation fuel sold in the United States contains certain minimum levels of r...

The D.C. Circuit denied petitions for review challenging the NRC's decision to renew an energy company's license to operate the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station. The petitioners argued that the license renewal was unlawful because the energy company failed to furnish a state water quality ce...

A district court held that residents may add four new defendants in their lawsuit against energy companies for alleged water contamination due to hydraulic fracturing operations near their homes. During the course of discovery, the residents learned that the proposed defendants participated in t...

A Pennsylvania appellate court enjoined for 120 days the effective date of a new state law, Act 13, that authorizes municipalities to regulate the location of oil and gas operations but not the manner in which they are operated. The court reasoned that municipalities must have an adequate opport...

A New York court upheld a town's enactment of a zoning law that bans oil and gas drilling, including hydraulic fracturing, within the geographical borders of the township. The holder of two gas leases argued that §23-0303 of New York's Environmental Conservation Law preempts the zoning law. The...

A New York court upheld a town's zoning amendment that bans hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking) within its jurisdiction. The zoning amendment was enacted in response to a petition from town residents concerned about hydrofracking's impact on ground and surface water supplies. An energy company ...

The U.S. Supreme Court reversed a state court decision that Montana may charge rent from an electric company that owns dams on the Missouri, Madison, and Clark Fork rivers. The Montana Supreme Court held that title to the riverbeds passed to Montana when it became a state in 1889 and awarded alm...

A district court issued a permanent injunction barring the state of Vermont from bringing an enforcement action, or taking other action, to compel the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant to shut down after its license expires on March 21, 2012, if it fails to obtain legislative approval to contin...

The D.C. Circuit vacated and remanded the FAA's "no hazard" determinations for a proposed offshore wind farm in Nantucket Sound. A town and a citizens group filed suit arguing that the FAA violated its governing statute, misread its own regulations, and arbitrarily and capriciously failed to calcula...

The court holds that a state's failure to seek rehearing of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC's) order on remand in a case involving a hydroelectric power license application deprives the court of jurisdiction. After denying the state's initial motions for rehearing, FERC filed an uno...