A California appellate court upheld a county's approval of a sand and gravel mining pit along a riverbed. An environmental group seeking to overturn the approval argued that the environmental impact report (EIR) that formed the basis of the county's decision violated the California Environmental Qua...

A district court dismissed a nonprofit group's lawsuit seeking to halt EPA studies that expose humans to fine particulate matter. The challenged EPA conduct does not constitute final agency action. EPA's alleged failure to comply with an agency rule does not constitute "agency action". And even if i...

The Louisiana Supreme Court held that a school district may seek remediation damages in excess of those required by state law from oil companies who engaged in oil exploration and production operations on school land. The district sought two types of damages: damages required under state law pursuan...

A California court rejected a challenge to the emissions offset component of California's greenhouse gas (GHG) cap-and-trade program promulgated by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) under the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. Under the program, all offsets must be additional, meaning tha...

The Court of Federal Claims dismissed a water district's breach of contract claims against the United States for failing to provide water drainage facilities and services. The district argued that the contracts it entered into with the government expressly obligated the government to provide drainag...

The Court of Federal Claims held that the U.S. government need not reimburse oil companies for costs they incurred cleaning up contamination stemming from the production of aviation fuel during World War II. During the 1940s, at the urging of the U.S. government, the companies entered into contracts...

The First Circuit, in a case involving an insurance company's obligations to its insured for damages stemming from contamination at a former manufactured gas plant, upheld a lower court decision allocating damages evenly across the 121-year span from the time of plant operations to trial, thereby re...

A North Carolina court held that the state's environmental agency has the authority to require an egg farm to obtain a NPDES permit to prevent airborne pollutants from reaching state waters. The egg farm does not make any direct discharges into state waters, but ammonia and other pollutants may ente...

The Second Circuit affirmed in part and vacated in part a lower court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the NRC in a case challenging its grant of an exemption to the Indian Point nuclear power plant from compliance with certain fire safety regulations. Environmental and citizens groups filed ...

The Federal Circuit reversed and remanded a lower court decision dismissing a developer's Fifth Amendment takings claim against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for denying its application for a CWA §404 wetlands fill permit. The property is located on a barrier island of Florida, much of which is ...