A Florida appellate court reversed and remanded the state siting board's decision to permit a power company to construct and operate two new nuclear generating units and to install miles of new transmission lines in and near the East Everglades. The board failed to consider local regulations, as req...

A North Carolina appellate court upheld a trial court's decision to cap a property owner's award of remediation damages to the diminution in property value, not the amount it would cost to clean up the property, thereby reducing a jury's award from $1.5 million to $108,500. The case involves a prope...

The Eleventh Circuit held that a developer is entitled to a charitable deduction on its 2006 tax return for granting a conservation easement on an 82-acre parcel of property that contained a bald eagle nest. The developer valued the parcel at $25.2 million on the assumption that the property's highe...

The Ninth Circuit upheld a proposed management plan for the Presidio, a former military base in San Franciso that is now a National Park and a National Historic Landmark, that provides for the construction of a 70,000 square foot lodge. The Presidio is managed by the Presidio Trust, a wholly owned g...

The Supreme Court of California held that the state fish and wildlife agency violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the California Fish and Game Code when it approved a large development project in northwest Los Angeles County. The agency prepared an environmental impact report...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision that BLM complied with NEPA and FLPMA in allowing the construction of a utility-scale wind project in California's Sonoran Desert. BLM sufficiently evaluated and disclosed the environmental impacts of the wind energy facility project under NEPA. Envi...

A Pennsylvania appellate court reversed a lower court order denying an energy company's application to construct and operate a natural gas well on land it has leased from a private landowner. The local board had granted the company a conditional use permit for the well, but the lower court set it as...

A district court held that a Native American tribe that occupies land on Fidalgo Island in Skagit County, Washington, may go forward with trespass and breach of contract claims against a railroad company for violating the terms of a right-of-way easement agreement. The easement grants the company th...

The California Supreme Court reversed a lower court decision that a developer's proposal to demolish an existing home and build a 10,000 square-foot single-family home on the lot may not be categorically exempt from environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). After th...

A California court held that federal mining law preempts a state law that effectively bans the use of any vacuum or suction dredge mining in streams and rivers on federal lands. Under Cal. Fish & Game Code §5653, the use of any vacuum or suction dredge equipment by any person in any river strea...