A district court denied landowners' motion to preliminarily enjoin an irrigation project in central Oregon. The landowners first argued that the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) violated NEPA by failing to include in its EA two farm-efficiency alternatives and an adequate analysis of th...
A district court granted in part nonprofit groups' motion for summary judgment in a lawsuit concerning BLM's review of cumulative climate impacts of oil and gas leases in Wyoming. The groups argued that BLM's supplemental EA prepared in response to the court's previous ruling that the agency had fai...
A district court granted in part and denied in part advocacy and industry groups' motion for summary judgment in a challenge to FDA's decision to allow a company to create and farm genetically engineered salmon. The groups argued that FDA violated NEPA by failing to take a sufficiently "hard look" a...
A district court granted BLM's request to remand without vacatur 27 oil and gas leasing decisions across five states. Environmental groups argued that BLM failed to consider the cumulative impacts of the leases as required under NEPA, and sought to have them vacated and remanded. The court found tha...
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a toxic, environmentally persistent class of chemicals that have been used widely in consumer products. Despite growing evidence of adverse health effects associated with PFAS exposure, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has not yet promulgated a legally enforceable standard for any of the individual chemicals in the PFAS group. This has resulted in largely unrestricted disposal of PFAS waste and dispersal of these persistent chemicals throughout the environment.
A district court dismissed for lack of standing a challenge to the Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA's) rate change for customers in its seven-state service area. Environmental groups argued that TVA violated NEPA by enacting the rate change based on a deficient EA, by failing to consider the enviro...
The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court ruling in a lawsuit concerning the U.S. government's and California's recovery of cleanup costs from a hazardous waste spill in the Sierra Nevada foothills that released toxic amounts of arsenic into local groundwater. Plaintiffs sued the company that had acq...
A district court denied environmental groups' motion to preliminarily enjoin or stay a rule issued by CEQ revising the regulations for federal agencies to follow in implementing NEPA. The groups argued that the rule was inconsistent with NEPA because, among other things, it improperly removed the re...