The Ninth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for the Forest Service in a challenge to its approval of a logging project in Inyo National Forest. Environmental groups argued the Service failed to adequately consider alternatives, failed to solicit public comments following its 2018 EA, and failed to s...
In an unpublished opinion, the Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court ruling that granted two cities' motion to remand to state court climate liability suits brought against five oil and gas companies. The cities of San Francisco and Oakland initially sued the companies in state court, arguing the ...
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) Climate Disclosure Rule has provoked heated controversy on many fronts. Several commenters have argued that the First Amendment precludes the SEC from demanding climate-related disclosures. This Article grapples with the unsettled state of “compelled commercial speech” doctrine, arguing that the rule’s constitutionality should be scrutinized using the prevailing rational basis test, and that even under the intermediate scrutiny test, the rule should be upheld.
Oil companies and their agents have been actively involved in creating and propagating climate change disinformation for the past half-century. In response to this deception, more than two dozen American states and cities have sued these companies under traditional tort-based causes of action like public nuisance, fraud, negligence, and failure to warn, alleging that the companies fueled uncertainty about climate science and undercut public support for necessary climate action.
A district court denied fishing groups' motion to remand a climate liability lawsuit against oil and gas companies. The groups initially sued in state court, seeking damages for lost fishing opportunities allegedly caused by climate change. The companies removed the suit to federal court under the C...
A district court dismissed environmental groups' challenge to BLM's approval of a 600-million-barrel oil development project in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. The groups first argued BLM violated NEPA by failing to consider a reasonable range of alternatives and by failing to adequately anal...