A district court dismissed groups' lawsuit challenging BLM's approval of a 370-megawatt utility-scale solar power plant currently under construction in the Mojave Desert. BLM's decision to consider cumulative impacts within a single EIS was not arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or other...
The Ninth Circuit, in an unpublished opinion, affirmed in part and reversed in part a lower court decision denying an environmental group's motion to preliminarily enjoin a BLM-approved timber sale. The district court did not abuse its discretion by ruling that the group failed to raise serious ques...
A district court held that the U.S. Forest Service complied with NEPA when it promulgated the land and resource management plan (LRMP) for the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest in Montana. The forest, the state's largest, covers 3.35 million acres and stretches over eight counties in southwestern...
The D.C. Circuit denied states' and industry groups' petitions challenging EPA rules establishing CAA permitting requirements in states that do not have implementation plans for greenhouse gases. The rules were designed to ensure that a permitting authority was available to issue the required greenh...
A California appellate court held that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) violated the California APA and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) when it adopted its Low Carbon Fuel Standards (LCFS) regulations to reduce the carbon content of transportation fuels sold, supplied, or of...
The D.C. Circuit vacated an EPA rule that deferred regulation of biogenic carbon dioxide—non-fossil-fuel carbon dioxide sources such as ethanol—for three years. Although the "Deferral Rule" is a temporary regulation, it functions, in effect, as a permanent exemption from the PSD permitting requi...
A district court dismissed environmental groups' claims that BLM failed to adequately consider climate change, global warming, and greenhouse gases (GHGs) in violation of NEPA before it approved oil and gas leases on federal land in Montana in 2008 and 2010. The groups argued that BLM's failure to f...
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down portions of the Los Angeles port's "Clean Truck Program," which was designed in part to reduce emissions related to port operations, including emissions from trucks. The concession agreements implementing the plan set forth a number of provisions covering, among ot...