In an unpublished opinion, the Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part a district court ruling in a lawsuit over a logging project in Kootenai National Forest. Conservation groups sued the Forest Service and FWS, arguing the project's approval violated the ESA, NEPA, and the National For...
A district court denied environmental groups' motion to preliminarily enjoin a tornado recovery operations project in Hoosier National Forest. The groups argued the Forest Service improperly excluded the project from NEPA's research and reporting requirements and began implementing the project befor...
A district court granted EPA's and OMB's motion to dismiss a challenge brought by California youth against certain agency policies for allegedly undervaluing the lives of children in cost-benefit analyses and thus harming them by failing to resolve the climate crisis. The youth argued the policies v...
The Ninth Circuit reversed a district court's dismissal of a challenge to the U.S. Air Force's decision to engage in hazardous waste disposal through open burning/open detonation (OB/OD) operations at Tarague Beach on Guam. A nonprofit group argued the Air Force failed to comply with its environment...
A district court granted the state of Utah's and an oil and gas company's motions to dismiss a challenge to four leasing decisions made from 2018 through 2019, under which BLM issued 145 oil and gas leases on public lands throughout eastern Utah. An environmental group argued BLM violated NEPA and t...
A district court granted the state of California's motion to dismiss a challenge to two California laws—SB 253, Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act, and SB 261, Greenhouse Gases: Climate-Related Financial Risk—that require large businesses to publicly disclose their greenhouse gas emission...
The Fifth Circuit affirmed a district court's denial of a motion to remand to state court a lawsuit concerning oil and gas production in New Orleans. The city of New Orleans sued several pipeline operators and a natural gas utility in state court, arguing they violated Louisiana's State and Local Co...
The Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part two district court rulings in lawsuits concerning policies governing oil and gas lease sales conducted by BLM on protected sage-grouse habitat. Environmental groups filed suit in Idaho and Montana, challenging certain sales conducted under guid...
The D.C. Circuit vacated the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration's (PHMSA's) 2020 rule authorizing the transportation of liquefied natural gas by rail in newly designed tank cars without a permit. Environmental groups, several states, and an Indian tribe petitioned for review, arg...
A district court upheld in part and remanded in part DOI's decision to refrain from holding lease sales of federal land for oil and gas development during the second and third quarters of 2021 and the third and fourth quarters of 2022. Oil and gas industry groups challenged the lack of lease sales f...