A district court granted summary judgment for an environmental group in a challenge to FWS' decision not to list the Joshua tree as threatened under the ESA. The group challenged the Service's findings that Joshua trees were not threatened under either the five threat factors or throughout a signifi...
The Ninth Circuit vacated an NPDES permit issued by EPA for concentrated animal feeding operations in Idaho. Environmental groups argued the permit lacked sufficient monitoring provisions to ensure compliance with its "zero discharge" requirements for production and land-application areas. The court...
The Ninth Circuit, 2-1, vacated and remanded a district court ruling in a CWA citizen suit concerning a clay manufacturer's discharges. Environmental groups argued the manufacturer illegally discharged pollutants into navigable waters, failed to monitor the discharge as required by its NPDES permit,...
A district court granted summary judgment for the Forest Service in environmental groups' lawsuit concerning federally permitted livestock grazing in Colville National Forest. The groups argued the Service violated NEPA and the National Forest Management Act (NMFA) by failing to adequately assess th...
A district court granted the state of Louisiana's motion for preliminary injunction to delay the effective date of NMFS' 2019 rule requiring turtle excluder devices on certain skimmer trawl vessels operating in inshore waters. The state argued the effective date was arbitrary and capricious because ...
A Minnesota appellate court affirmed the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's (MPCA's) decision to issue a CWA §401 certification for the Line 3 crude oil pipeline replacement project. Native American tribes and environmental groups challenged the decision, arguing the MPCA failed to consider alter...
A district court upheld in part and vacated in part a 2016 rule of the Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONNR), which effectively changed how royalties owed to the federal government are calculated on oil, gas, and coal produced from federal land and offshore leases as well as coal produced from ...
A district court granted interim injunctive relief for environmental groups in a lawsuit concerning the Army Corps of Engineers' operation of dams in the Willamette River Basin. The groups sought injunctive relief to remedy the Corps' substantive and procedural ESA violations previously found by the...
A district court remanded to state court a climate liability lawsuit brought by the city of Hoboken, New Jersey, against large oil and gas companies. The city filed suit in state court, alleging the companies' decades-long campaign to downplay the effect of fossil fuel usage on climate change had da...
A district court denied summary judgment for the state of Missouri in a challenge to the Bureau of Reclamation's approval of a water supply project in North Dakota. Missouri argued the Bureau violated NEPA by failing to prepare an EIS, failing to take a "hard look" at the effectiveness of mitigation...