The D.C. Circuit upheld BLM’s decision to allow additional natural gas drilling in the Pinedale Anticline Project Area of western Wyoming. In 2008, the BLM adopted a record of decision (ROD) that, among other things, authorized the development of more natural gas wells than a previous ROD had sanc...

The Tenth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision dismissing a lawsuit challenging the Forest Service's approval of a ski area improvement project near Aspen, Colorado. A conservation group alleged that the Forest Service violated NEPA by approving the project without examining certain cumulative ef...

A district court upheld the U.S. Forest Service's environmental review of a coal mine expansion project in the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison National Forests. An environmental group argued that the final EIS failed to adequately consider methane capture and flaring as reasonable alternatives...

The court affirms in part and reverses in part a district court decision upholding U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) regulations that govern damage to land, structures, and certain water supplies caused by mining subsidence. The court first holds that a regulation establishing a rebuttable presu...

The court affirms the dismissal of a land trust's action alleging that a coal company that owned the mineral rights to a tract of the trust's land violated the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) and other federal and state laws. The trust alleged that the company's failure to comply ...

The court upholds some provisions and strikes down other provisions of an Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) interim final rule that required a surface mining permit applicant to disclose all environmental violations it incurred at its mining operations. The court first holds...

The court holds that the U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT's) approval of a 12-lane bridge to replace an existing 6-lane bridge in Alexandria, Virginia, violated the Clean Air Act (CAA), the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), and the Depar...