The Ninth Circuit upheld a lower court decision dismissing an environmental group's citizen suit requesting EPA to issue more stringent regulations for ozone pollution under the PSD program. The group alleged that the EPA Administrator has a nondiscretionary duty to issue revised ozone regulations u...

The Ninth Circuit dismissed an oil company's Declaratory Judgment Act lawsuit against several environmental groups, seeking a declaration that the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement’s approval of two oil spill response plans under OPA for Alaska’s Beaufort and Chukchi Seas did not vi...

The Ninth Circuit held that DOT did not violate the CAA or NEPA in its approval of a planned expressway connecting the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, California. In the course of the project’s approval process, DOT conducted an air quality conformity determination under the CAA, which involv...

The D.C. Circuit dismissed automobile industry groups' petition challenging an EPA rule intended to mitigate the misfueling of vehicles and engines with gasoline containing greater than 10% ethanol (E10). Among other measures, the rule prohibits the use of E10 gasoline in certain vehicles, engines, ...

The Tenth Circuit denied petitions for review challenging EPA's approval of a regional cap-and-trade program regulating sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions to address regional haze over the Colorado Plateau, a Class I area. Under the CAA's regional haze rule for Class I areas, states have the option of u...

The D.C. Circuit upheld an NRC order transferring regulatory authority over decommissioning activities at a former aluminum production plant to the state of New Jersey under the Atomic Energy Act. New Jersey’s regulatory regime is adequate and compatible with the NRC’s regulatory program. And de...

A Colorado court held that a voter-approved local ban on hydraulic fracturing cannot apply retroactively to ban oil and gas operations that a city approved in a prior agreement. The city entered into a memorandum of understanding in August 2013 allowing a company to engage oil and gas exploration an...