The Fourth Circuit granted a pipeline company's petition to review the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality's (NCDEQ's) denial of a CWA §401 certification for construction of a natural gas pipeline. The company argued the denial was arbitrary and capricious because NCDEQ did not compl...
The D.C. Circuit denied, 2-1, New Jersey's challenge to a rule promulgated by EPA on remand concerning the CAA's new source review (NSR) program. The state argued that EPA inadequately considered concerns stemming from the predictive and subjective nature of projected emissions calculations and adop...
The Tenth Circuit reversed and vacated a district court order preliminarily enjoining EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers from implementing the 2020 Navigable Waters Protection Rule (NWPR) in Colorado. Colorado argued the agencies violated the APA because the NWPR was not in accordance with the law,...
The Fifth Circuit upheld a rule issued by the Consumer Product Safety Commission prohibiting the manufacture and sale of children's toys and childcare articles that contained concentrations of more than 0.1% of any one of five phthalates, but remanded the rule to the Commission to address two proced...
The D.C. Circuit denied petitions to review three FERC orders concerning cost sharing for certain upgrades to the Mid-Atlantic electricity transmission grid. Petitioners argued the Commission departed from precedent without adequate explanation, made findings that were not supported by substantial e...
The U.S. Supreme Court reversed, 7-2, a circuit court ruling that draft biological opinions were not exempt from a FOIA request related to FWS' and NMFS' consultations with EPA for a proposed rule regarding cooling water intake structures. An environmental group submitted FOIA requests for the recor...
The Montana Supreme Court reversed, 5-2, a lower court decision reversing the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation's (DNRC's) issuance of a beneficial water use permit for a proposed silver and copper mine beneath the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness. The mining company and DNRC appe...
A district court granted fishermen's motion for summary judgment in a challenge to an NMFS rule that would close their swordfish fishery if they accidentally killed or injured too many marine mammals or turtles, and vacated the rule. The fishermen argued the rule conflicted with three national stand...
The Ninth Circuit reversed a district court order staying state law claims in a lawsuit concerning the California Water Resources Board's amendments to its water quality control plan for the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta system. The U.S. government brought the suit, arguing the ...
In an unpublished opinion, the Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court's denial of a motion to preliminarily enjoin a timber harvest and road construction project in the Idaho Panhandle National Forests. Environmental groups first argued the district court erred in finding that they failed to presen...