The Ninth Circuit denied a petition for review of the NRC's refusal to include the threat of air attacks in its revised "design basis threat" rule, initially promulgated to protect nuclear power reactors from industrial sabotage. In March 2007, NRC revised the rule to increase the range of threats i...

The Tenth Circuit held that the owner of an underground coal mine may intervene in an environmental group's NEPA action concerning the U.S. Forest Service's approval of venting of methane gas from a mine. The lower court denied the motion, finding that the owner failed to show either that the govern...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision setting aside the U.S. Forest Service's State Petitions Rule and reinstating the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, more commonly known as the "Roadless Rule," pending the Service's compliance with NEPA and the ESA. The State Petitions Rule, issued in ...

The Tenth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision declining a water user association's request for a declaration that it has well-defined rights to develop power in the Diamond Fork System of the Central Utah Project and instead declaring that the association, the United States, and the local water ...

A New Jersey appellate court affirmed a lower court decision holding the seller of industrial property strictly liable under the New Jersey Industrial Site Recovery Act for all cleanup costs and damages stemming from its failure to obtain a "no further action" letter before selling the property to t...

The Seventh Circuit held that an environmental group lacks standing in their action against several government agencies for allowing the discharge of bullets into Lake Michigan at a U.S.-operated gun range. The group alleged that the deterioration of the lead bullets in the water harmed the environm...

The Eighth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision holding moot certain parts of a 1975 injunction regulating air emissions from a mining company's taconite pellet operation in Silver Bay, Minnesota. The lower court held that since portions of the injunction had been effectively incorporated into st...

A California appellate court upheld a lower court decision denying a city's petition to overturn a school district's final environmental impact report (FEIR) for a high school construction project. The city argued that the school district failed to provide adequate detail and analysis sufficient to ...

A California appellate court affirmed the denial of a petition for review of a city's certification of an environmental impact report (EIR) and approval of a conditional use permit for the construction of a large food store. The city council approved the EIR after adding additional information to th...

The Seventh Circuit upheld an injunction, at the behest of EPA under the authority of RCRA, requiring an oil company to clean up a contaminated site in Hartford, Illinois. The lower court determined that millions of gallons of oil, composing a "hydrocarbon plume" trapped not far underground, are con...