The U.S. Supreme Court held that federal agencies need not follow the APA's formal notice-and-comment procedures when they wish to change an interpretive rule. In Paralyzed Veterans of America v. D. C. Arena L.P., 117 F. 3d 579 (D.C. Cir. 1997), the D.C. Circuit held that an agency must use the APA'...

An Ohio court struck down a city's ban on drilling new oil and gas wells within its jurisdiction. On the one hand, the ban is a clear exercise of the city's police power; by attempting to ban oil and gas drilling, the city is trying to protect the public health and general welfare. But the ban is in...

The D.C. Circuit upheld DOI's five-year plan for oil and gas leases on the outer continental shelf (OCS). A nonprofit group argued that the 2012-2017 leasing schedule violated §18(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which governs how DOI is to balance competing economic, social, and enviro...

An Arizona court overturned the state's issuance of an air permit for a proposed open-pit copper mine. An environmental group argued that the state's approval of the permit was arbitrary and capricious because the mine has the potential to violate NAAQS. They also claimed that the mine's modeling re...