The Fourth Circuit, in an unpublished opinion, affirmed a lower court decision upholding the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' conclusion that it has jurisdiction over wetlands on a developer's property. The developer wanted to fill 4.8 acres of wetlands in order to build 10 homes. The wetlands are loca...

The D.C. Circuit upheld DOI's five-year plan for oil and gas leases on the outer continental shelf (OCS). A nonprofit group argued that the 2012-2017 leasing schedule violated §18(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which governs how DOI is to balance competing economic, social, and enviro...

An Arizona court overturned the state's issuance of an air permit for a proposed open-pit copper mine. An environmental group argued that the state's approval of the permit was arbitrary and capricious because the mine has the potential to violate NAAQS. They also claimed that the mine's modeling re...

The Ninth Circuit denied an environmental group's petition challenging EPA's approval of a revision to California's SIP. The revision provided alternative "not less stringent" controls to what is required in CAA §185's antibacksliding measures, which require that major stationary sources of polluti...