The D.C. Circuit granted a refining company's petition challenging FERC's methodology for determining payments to oil companies that use the Trans Alaska Pipeline System to transport oil in a commingled stream. Absent monetary adjustments to compensate for the difference in quality between inputs an...

A district court held that BLM failed to take a "hard look" at the environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing with regard to the agency's resource management plan (RMP) for public lands in California's central region. Under the resource management plan, 25% of new wells are expected to use hydraul...

The Supreme Court of California held that the state's moratorium on the use of suction dredges to mine gold from rivers was not preempted by federal mining law. The case arose after an individual challenged his conviction for the possession and unpermitted use of a suction dredge. He argued that the...

The Fifth Circuit reversed a lower court decision that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must bear all the costs of deauthorizing the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet (MR-GO), instead holding that the Corps' cost-sharing formula with the state of Louisiana was reasonable. The Corps has completed buildin...

The Second Circuit affirmed a district court decision holding that an $8.646 billion judgment granted by an Ecuadorian court for pollution in the Amazon was procured by bribery, coercion, and fraud and enjoining an attorney and two of his Ecuadorian clients from seeking to enforce the judgment in th...

The Seventh Circuit denied petitions for review challenging two DOE rules aimed at improving the energy efficiency of commercial refrigeration equipment. The first rule adopted new energy efficiency standards for commercial refrigeration equipment, and the second rule, issued a month later, clarifie...