The Fourth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision dismissing an environmental group's lawsuit challenging the OSM's approval of two amendments to West Virginia's surface coal mining regulations. One amendment repeals the definition of "cumulative impact" in the state's cumulative hydrologic imp...

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A district court held that Washington state must establish reasonably available control technology (RACT) for greenhouse gas emissions. Based on its plain language, the RACT provision contained in Washington's federally approved SIP is not discretionary and requires the state's agencies to estab...

A California court held that the California Air Resources Board's "functional equivalent document" and scoping plan to reduce greenhouse gases as it relates to cap and trade complies with the California Environmental Quality Act. The court therefore lifted its May 20, 2011, peremptory writ of man...

The court affirms in part and reverses in part a district court decision upholding U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) regulations that govern damage to land, structures, and certain water supplies caused by mining subsidence. The court first holds that a regulation establishing a rebuttable presu...

The court affirms the dismissal of a land trust's action alleging that a coal company that owned the mineral rights to a tract of the trust's land violated the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) and other federal and state laws. The trust alleged that the company's failure to comply ...

The court upholds some provisions and strikes down other provisions of an Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) interim final rule that required a surface mining permit applicant to disclose all environmental violations it incurred at its mining operations. The court first holds...