A district court held that fee restrictions set forth in the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (REA) do not apply to private, third-party concessionaires who operate recreation areas within the National Forests. Nonprofit groups challenged the U.S. Forest Service’s issuance of several speci...
The Ninth Circuit refused to rehear a case in which it previously ruled that environmental groups lacked standing to compel the Washington State Department of Ecology and other regional agencies to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from the state's five oil refineries under the CAA. One of the judge...
A district court denied environmental groups' motions for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to halt the Idaho Department of Fish and Game's wolf trapping and hunting program in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness area. Since December 2013, seven gray wolves have bee...
The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision denying a commercial oyster farm's motion for a preliminarily injunction challenging the DOI Secretary's discretionary decision to let the farm's permit for farming at Point Reyes National Seashore expire on its own terms. The farm requested an exten...
The D.C. Circuit affirmed the dismissal of environmental groups' lawsuit challenging BLM's decision to lease two tracts of land in the Wyoming Powder River Basin for coal mining. The groups argued that BLM failed to adequately consider several environmental concerns, including the increase in local ...
A New York appellate court dismissed New York residents' lawsuit challenging the state's enforcement of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a carbon dioxide cap-and-trade program that targets emissions from electricity generating power plants in New York and six other states. The resident...
A district court held that the U.S. Forest Service did not act arbitrarily or capriciously when it approved a project intended to improve conditions in the Little Slate Creek watershed in the Nez Perce National Forest. The project would seek to improve the watershed through aquatic habitat restorati...
A California court upheld the California Air Resource Board's (CARB's) authority to sell greenhouse gas allowances at auction under the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, also known as Assembly Bill 32 (AB 32). As in its tentative decision issued last August, the court ruled that the a...
A district court issued an injunction ordering the U.S. Forest Service to prohibit industrial equipment—known as "mega-loads"—headed for the Alberta Sands from being transported along a highway that runs through the Nez Perce Reservation and the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest until certain...
The Ninth Circuit held that environmental groups lacked standing to compel the Washington State Department of Ecology and other regional agencies to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from the state's five oil refineries under the CAA. The groups claimed that the agencies failed to define emission li...