Western Watersheds Project v. Salazar
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...
Teel v. Chesapeake Appalachia, LLC
A district court dismissed a landowner's trespass claim against an energy company for waste stemming from natural gas drilling operations on the property. The company owns the mineral rights underlying the land. As part of its drilling operations, the company deposited drilling waste and other mater...
Tuolumne Jobs & Small Business Alliance v. Superior Court of Tuolumne County
A California appellate court held that a city council may not skip California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review for a development project by using Election Code §9214(a) to approve the project via a voter petition instead of holding an election under §9214(b). When a development project is a...
Preserve Wild Santee v. City of Santee
A California appellate court held that a city's certification of an environmental impact report (EIR) for a development project covering 2,600 acres of undeveloped land for single-family dwelling units and a village center violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Below, the trial co...
Bronx Committee for Toxic Free Schools v. New York City School Construction Authority
New York's highest court held that the New York City School Construction Authority's EIS for the construction of a campus of four public schools in an area formerly used as a railroad yard violated the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA). Because the site contains significant soil and gro...
Chung v. City of Monterey Park
A California appellate court held that a local ballot measure requiring a city to seek competitive bidding for future trash service contracts was not a "project" under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) subject to environmental review. A city resident alleged that the city violated CEQA...
Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center v. County of Siskiyou
A California appellate court upheld a county's approval of a project to expand an existing wood veneer manufacturing facility in order to permit cogeneration of electricity for resale. Environmental and citizens groups filed a petition for review, claiming that the environmental impact report for th...