A district court held that NOAA Fisheries adequately considered economic impacts when it designated 8.6 million acres in California, Oregon, and Washington as critical habitat for the green sturgeon, a threatened species. Developers argued that the agency was required to balance the economic impacts...

A district court dismissed a lawsuit brought by five states seeking an order requiring the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to create physical barriers in the waterways connecting Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River Basin in order to prevent bighead and silver carp from migrating into the Great Lake...

A California court held that the environmental impact report (EIR) San Diego prepared for its regional transport plan and accompanying sustainable communities strategy violates the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) because it failed to adequately address greenhouse gas emissions. The EIR i...

A district court granted an environmental group's motion to preliminarily enjoin the logging of 11 timber sales and to halt any further logging activities in known occupied marbled murrelet sites in Oregon's Tillamook, Clatsop, and Elliot state forests. Defendants argued that the case was moot becau...

The First Circuit upheld an amendment to the fishery management plan for the Northeast Multispecies Groundfish Fishery. Among other things, the amendment altered and expanded the fishery's preexisting "sector allocation program" and established new restrictions on fishing activities to prevent overf...

A district court held that DOI complied with NEPA, the ESA, and FLPMA when it approved the construction of a large solar power plant in California's Mojave Desert. Environmental groups filed suit, alleging that BLM and FWS inadequately considered the project's effect on existing populations of deser...