The Tenth Circuit held that BLM's approval of coal leases in the Wyoming Powder River Basin violated NEPA. In its 2010 EIS for the leases, BLM concluded that there was no appreciable difference between the United States’ total carbon dioxide emissions under its preferred alternative and the no-act...

The Tenth Circuit held that a Wyoming law that imposed civil and criminal liability on those who cross private property to access adjacent land to collect resource data violates the First Amendment. In 2015, Wyoming enacted a pair of statutes that prohibited individuals from entering “open land fo...

The Ninth Circuit held that the FAA did not act arbitrarily when it forewent a full EIS on a third runway at the Hillsboro Airport in Hillsboro, Oregon. In 2005, the airport, the busiest in the state of Oregon, developed a plan to deal with traffic that included the addition of a third runway. Since...

The Sixth Circuit held that the Forest Service's rules regarding recreational boating on Crooked Lake in Michigan's Sylvania Wilderness exceeded the agency's power as applied to private property owners. Congress gave the Forest Service authority to regulate any use of Crooked Lake and nearby lakes �...

The California Supreme Court held that the state Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) was not preempted by federal law. The North Coast Railroad Authority (NCRA) undertook a project to update and repair railroad tracks that run across the Eel and Russian Rivers and restore freight operation in the areas...

A district court held that a Mississippi landowner is not entitled to an injunction to stop alleged contamination from oil and gas production activities on his property. The landowner's property is subject to certain mineral leases, rights of way, and surface agreements allowing a company access to ...

The Supreme Court, in a 5-3 decision, decided that the owners of a family cottage were not entitled to compensation over development regulations that bar the sale of the family's adjacent lot. The family wanted to sell the lot to finance an upgrade to their cottage, and argued that St. Croix County,...

The Ninth Circuit held that FWS and the Forest Service did not violate the National Forest Management Act when they approved the thinning of trees and undergrowth from portions of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. The case involved a Revised Recovery Plan that specified guidelines for protection o...

A district court found that the National Park Service (NPS) took a “hard look” at environmental impacts when it approved an oil and gas company's seismic survey in a Florida nature preserve. The oil and gas company requested that NPS allow it to conduct seismic tests in the Big Cypress National ...

The D.C. Circuit ruled that a trade association composed of lumber companies had standing to challenge an FWS designation of critical habitat for the northern spotted owl on federal land in California, Oregon, and Washington. In 2012, FWS issued a final rule designating 9.5 million acres of federal ...