The court holds that a 1977 contribution a chemical company made to the Virginia Environmental Endowment Fund, which was created in response to litigation over environmental contamination at the company's former plant in Hopewell, Virginia, was in substance an environmental penalty that the company ...

The court refuses to approve a proposed consent decree requiring the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to issue a notice of proposed revisions to its hazardous waste identification rule by August 15, 1995, and to issue its final rules by December 15, 1996. The court first holds that a state...

The court upholds the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC's) determination that litigation and settlement costs incurred by oil pipeline carriers in connection with the Exxon Valdez oil spill are "extraordinary expenses," and that the settlement agreement between the carriers and the state ...

The court upholds the conviction of three individuals that organized a 20,000-person event in the Allegheny National Forest without obtaining a special permit in violation of U.S. Forest Service (the Service) regulations. The court first holds that the regulations are not unconstitutionally vague be...

The court affirms a district court holding that the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) breached its fiduciary duties to Individual Indian Money (IIM) trust account beneficiaries and, therefore, must conduct an accurate accounting. The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 returned to tribal ownership...

The court enjoins the U.S. Forest Service from implementing all aspects of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which prohibits construction of roads on presently roadless areas in the national forests. The court first holds that the federal government has committed to amendments to its environmenta...

The court holds that the Secretary of Commerce abused his discretion and acted in contrivance of the law when he issued a finding that triggered a change in the dolphin-safe label standard for tuna sold in the United States. Through the International Dolphin Conservation Program Act (IDCPA), Congres...

The D.C. Circuit reversed and remanded a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) order allowing states to regulate the reimbursement of "headwater benefits" from downstream hydropower plants to upstream dam operators. To enable upstream firms to recoup part of the cost of conferring headwater be...

The D.C. Circuit upheld a final order issued by the Department of the Interior (DOI) requiring an energy company to retroactively recalculate royalties owed to the U.S. government under its lease to extract coalbed methane from federal land in Wyoming. In its disputed order, DOI held that the market...

The D.C. Circuit denied a petition to review the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC's) interpretation of the term "markets" as used in an amendment to the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act that created exceptions to a utility's mandatory purchase obligation to buy energy from qualifyi...