A district court held that a mining company allowed excessive amounts of selenium to be discharged from one of its surface coal mine operations in violation of the CWA and SMCRA. The company's state permit does not explicitly impose selenium limitations, but it does incorporate by reference state re...

A district court vacated the government's approval of on-the-ground mining exploration activities in a part of western Colorado's North Fork Valley and enjoined the intervening mining companies from proceeding with the project until the agencies comply with NEPA. Although the federal agencies provid...

The Supreme Court of Utah dismissed an environmental group's lawsuit challenging the state's issuance of a discharge permit for a tar sands bitumen-extraction project in the Uintah Basin. The original discharge permit was granted by the Utah Division of Water Quality (DWQ) in 2008. In 2011, the Utah...

A Texas appellate court reversed a lower court decision enjoining a city from undertaking certain activities relating to further development of its proposed water well plan on a landowner's property. The city owns the groundwater rights under the landowner's property, and in 2012 it proposed a well ...

The Supreme Court of Alaska upheld a ballot initiative that would require legislative approval of the any new large-scale metallic sulfide mining operation—the Pebble Mine gold and copper project—in the Bristol Bay watershed. Despite mining associations' arguments to the contrary, the "Bristol B...

The D.C. Circuit dismissed teenagers' lawsuit against the federal government for failing to cap greenhouse gas emissions. Invoking the federal question statute, 28 U.S.C. §1331, as the basis for subject matter jurisdiction, the minors alleged that the federal defendants are trustees of essential na...

The D.C. Circuit dismissed as untimely a coal mine operator’s lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a DOI regulation requiring coal mine operators to pay a fee for each ton of coal they produce by mining. The regulation requires mine operators to pay the reclamation fee when the coal is ult...

A district court held that Minnesota's New Generation Energy Act, which establishes energy and environmental standards related to carbon dioxide emissions, constitutes impermissible extraterritorial legislation and is a per se violation of the dormant Commerce Clause. The statute's plain language ap...