The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) plays a crucial role in the authorization and approval of more development projects than any other federal law. Proponents believe NEPA protects communities and the environment from potentially detrimental projects, while critics counter the Act prevents timely review of important infrastructure projects.
A district court granted in part and denied in part a motion for summary judgment in a challenge to the Forest Service's and BLM's authorizations of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in Wayne National Forest. Environmental groups argued the agencies violated NEPA by failing to take a "hard look" at...
Minnesota's high court upheld an appellate court ruling in favor of a county's zoning ordinance that bans all industrial-mineral mining, including silica-sand mining. A silica-sand mining company argued the ordinance violated the dormant Commerce Clause by discriminating against its business. The hi...
A district court vacated an EA prepared by OSM for a coal mine expansion in south-central Montana. Environmental groups argued that OSM violated NEPA by failing to adequately consider the risk of train derailments from the increased rail traffic that would result. The court found that OSM should hav...
A district court denied summary judgment to the U.S. government in a lawsuit concerning California's cap-and-trade agreement with Quebec. The government argued the agreement violated the Treaty Clause of the U.S. Constitution because it was binding and "confederat[ed] the laws of the two jurisdictio...
A district court held that the Forest Service violated NEPA, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), and the National Forest Management Act (NFMA) when it authorized timber harvesting in the Tongass National Forest. Environmental groups argued the EIS, which included a conditio...
The Tenth Circuit held that the Forest Service's decision to eliminate an alternative from its study of an exception to the Colorado Roadless Rule that allowed coal mining on previously protected national forest land near the North Fork of the Gunnison River was arbitrary and capricious. Environment...
A district court granted in part and denied in part motions to compel discovery in a challenge to the Federal Highway Administration's (FHwA's), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers', and EPA's approval of permits for construction of a new interstate highway from North Carolina to Myrtle Beach. An environme...
NEPA is not about my agenda or your agenda. It is about solutions that work for all of us. This Comment offers a litmus test. The first section explains the promise NEPA makes to each of us, describing the integration, information, and inclusion that NEPA brought to our federal statutory framework in a way not previously seen and describing how NEPA enhances our democracy by holding the government accountable to the people it serves—by giving the public a right to information, as well as the right to provide information.
The Court of Federal Claims held that the U.S. government was not liable for the flooding of homes near two dams managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Houston during Hurricane Harvey. Property owners downstream of the dams argued that the government flooded their lands by opening the dams' ...