Montana Environmental Information Center v. United States Bureau of Land Management
A district court dismissed environmental groups' claims that BLM failed to adequately consider climate change, global warming, and greenhouse gases (GHGs) in violation of NEPA before it approved oil and gas leases on federal land in Montana in 2008 and 2010. The groups argued that BLM's failure to f...
Sierra Club v. United States Department of Agriculture
The D.C. Circuit held that a power company may not appeal a lower court decision that USDA's Rural Utilities Service violated NEPA before granting approvals and financial assistance to the company's expansion of its coal-fired power plant. An environmental group filed suit against the Service for fa...
Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League v. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
The D.C. Circuit denied petitions for review challenging NRC's issuance of a combined license to construct and operate two new units at the Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant in Georgia as well as its approval of an amended design for a nuclear power plant reactor on which the Vogtle application relied. Env...
Kentucky Riverkeeper, Inc. v. Rowlette
The Sixth Circuit struck down the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' reissuance of nationwide permit 21, which authorizes surface coal mining operations to discharge dredged and fill material into waters of the United States. An environmental group challenged the permit, alleging that the cumulative-impa...
Center for Biological Diversity v. Bureau of Land Management
A district court held that BLM violated NEPA when it sold four oil and gas leases on approximately 2,700 acres of federal land in Monterey and Fresno counties without considering impacts from hydraulic fracturing. The leases are located in California's Monterey Shale Formation, which is estimated to...
Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Ass'ns v. United States Department of the Interior
A district court held that commercial fishing groups may go forward with their NEPA lawsuit against the Bureau of Reclamation in a case involving the Bureau's approval of eight water delivery contracts in California's Central Valley. The groups argued that the Bureau's EA failed to adequately consid...