A district court denied summary judgment for environmental groups in a challenge to the Forest Service's approval of a proposed mining exploration project on public land in the eastern Sierra Nevadas. The groups argued the Service violated NEPA by relying on two categorical exclusions—for mineral ...
A district court vacated on remand OSM's approval of an underground coal mine expansion in central Montana. Environmental groups initially challenged OSM's 2018 EA for the proposed expansion. The Ninth Circuit held that OSM violated NEPA by failing to provide convincing reasons for its determination...
The Fourth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) and FHwA in a challenge to their approval of a toll bridge across North Carolina's Currituck Sound that would connect the northern Outer Banks with the mainland. Environmental and community group...
The Tenth Circuit reversed a district court ruling that affirmed BLM's environmental impact analysis for 370 applications for permits to drill (APDs) for oil and gas in New Mexico's San Juan Basin. Environmental groups argued that BLM's 81 EAs and EA addendum violated NEPA because the Bureau imprope...
Many chemicals and hazardous substances are kept in places that can withstand ordinary rain, but not severe storms or floods. If these events occur and the chemicals are released, people and the environment may be endangered. This Article discusses the hazards posed to chemical and waste disposal facilities by extreme weather events that would be worsened as a result of climate change, and how U.S. laws do (or do not) deal with these hazards; and considers how the law would need to change to cope with what would happen to these facilities in a potentially 4°C world.