A district court denied in part environmental groups' motion for summary judgment challenging BLM's and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' approval of a project to replace a wooden diversion weir with a concrete dam along the Yellowstone River. The groups argued that the agencies' EIS violated NEPA b...

The D.C. Circuit granted in part a Native American tribe's petition to review NRC's license decision for construction of a uranium mining project in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The tribe, which has historical ties to the proposed project area, argued that the agency failed to comply with NEPA b...

The D.C. Circuit denied an environmental group's petition to review FERC orders authorizing facilities to export natural gas from the United States to Mexico. The group argued that FERC, in addition to exercising jurisdiction over the export facilities at the border, also should have exercised juris...

The Fifth Circuit vacated a lower court's decision to preliminarily enjoin a pipeline company from constructing part of a pipeline through the Atchafalaya Basin, a sensitive wetlands area in southern Louisiana. Environmental groups argued that the EAs conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (C...

The D.C. Circuit vacated a license renewal that FERC granted for a power plant on the Coosa River. Environmental groups argued that the agency violated the Federal Power Act, NEPA, and the ESA when it issued the power company's license. The appellate court agreed, finding that the EA and biological ...

The D.C. Circuit affirmed a lower court decision granting DOI's motion to dismiss an order compelling it to update the EIS for the federal coal management program. Environmental and community organizations claimed that the programmatic EIS (PEIS) for the program violated NEPA and the APA. They argue...

A district court held BLM violated NEPA when it approved 13 oil and gas leases covering 19,788 acres in the Santa Fe National Forest without considering the leases' impacts on climate change. BLM decided an EIS was not warranted based on its FONSI. But BLM failed to take a hard look at the impacts o...

A district court dismissed groups' NEPA and CWA claims against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in connection with its approval of a 17-mile transmission line across the James River near historic Jamestown, Virginia. The Corps took a "hard look" at the project and properly determined that no EIS was...

A district court held that BLM violated NEPA by failing to adequately consider climate change in the resource management plans (RMPs) for Buffalo, Wyoming, and Miles City, Montana, both located within the coal-rich Powder River Basin. BLM's EISs failed to consider any alternative that would decrease...

The Sixth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision dismissing residents' NEPA lawsuit against the National Park Service (NPS) concerning its approval of a scenic trailway through the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Michigan. One of the alternative routes for the trailway, which NPS proposed...