The D.C. Circuit vacated FERC's issuance of a certificate of public convenience and necessity for construction of a natural gas pipeline in the St. Louis area. An environmental group argued FERC's decision to award the certificate uncritically and exclusively relied on a precedent agreement between ...

The D.C. Circuit vacated a district court's grant of summary judgment to USDA's Farm Service Agency in a lawsuit concerning the agency's loan approval for a chicken farm in Maryland. An environmental group argued the EA made in connection with the loan approval violated NEPA, and that the EA should ...

A state appellate court upheld, 2-1, a certificate of need and routing permit granted by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission for replacement of a portion of the Line 3 oil pipeline. Native American tribes and environmental groups challenged the Commission's decision to grant the certificate of...

A district court denied BLM's motion to stay a challenge to a former Secretary of the Interior's order lifting a moratorium on coal leasing. States, environmental groups, and a Native American tribe had challenged the adequacy of BLM's final EA and FONSI in support of its decision to reinstate the l...

A district court granted states' motion to preliminarily enjoin the president's Executive Order pausing new oil and gas leases on public lands and in offshore waters. The states argued the "pause" violated the APA, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), and the Mineral Leasing Act (MLA). The...

A district court remanded without vacatur oil and gas lease sales approved by BLM in greater sage-grouse habitat in Montana and Wyoming. Conservation groups argued BLM violated NEPA by failing to consider their proposed alternative of deferring priority sage-grouse habitat and failing to take a "har...

A district court denied environmental groups' motion for summary judgment in a challenge to the Forest Service's approval of a road reopening project in grizzly bear habitat in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest. The groups argued the Service's approval of the project violated NEPA and the National...

The Fourth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for a county in South Carolina in a lawsuit concerning the county's alleged taking of honey sellers' bees. The sellers argued their bees died after the county sprayed pesticide in an effort to kill mosquitoes, and thus constituted a Fifth Amendment taking...