The Ninth Circuit reversed, 2-1, a lower court ruling denying a request to preliminarily enjoin a logging project in the Mendocino National Forest. An environmental group argued the Forest Service improperly determined that the project qualified for a categorical exclusion (CE) for road repair and m...

The D.C. Circuit stayed a lower court ruling that ordered the Dakota Access Pipeline to be shut down and emptied of oil within 30 days. As to the pipeline company's motion to stay the order vacating the Army Corps of Engineers' issuance of an easement under the Mineral Leasing Act, however, it found...

A district court vacated the Trump Administration's rescission of the Obama Administration's Waste Prevention Rule, which was enacted to reduce methane waste from oil and gas operations on public and tribal lands. California, New Mexico, and environmental groups argued the rescission violated the AP...

A district court granted in part summary judgment for nonprofit groups in a suit concerning a logging project in the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest. One group argued the project violated the Roadless Rule because the Forest Service was surreptitiously planning to construct new roads in an in...

A district court vacated the Army Corps of Engineers' decision to grant an easement under the Mineral Leasing Act for the Dakota Access Pipeline, which runs from North Dakota to Illinois, after previously ruling that the Corps must prepare an EIS for the pipeline to comply with NEPA. The court found...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for BLM in a challenge to its 2017 offer and sale of oil and gas leases in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. Environmental groups argued that BLM violated NEPA by failing to prepare an EA or EIS for the lease sale and failing to take a hard look at it...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for BLM in a challenge to the agency's "geld and release" plan for wild horses in northeastern Nevada. An animal rights group argued that BLM violated NEPA by failing to prepare an EIS for the plan because five of the Act's intensity factors demonstrated t...

The D.C. Circuit invalidated FERC's longstanding practice of issuing tolling orders to extend the statutory period for acting on requests for rehearing of its orders, in a lawsuit concerning the Commission's granting of a certificate of public convenience and necessity to a natural gas pipeline in P...

A district court vacated a timber harvesting project in Tongass National Forest after previously ruling that the Forest Service violated NEPA, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, and the National Forest Management Act when it authorized the project. Both the plaintiff environmental ...

The Tenth Circuit upheld the Forest Service's approval of two forest-thinning projects in the Santa Fe National Forest. Environmental groups and individuals argued the Service violated NEPA by failing to adequately consider the projects' effects on inventoried roadless areas and their cumulative imp...