The court holds that federal sovereign immunity bars an action initiated by the commonwealth of Puerto Rico's environmental agency in an effort to impose restrictions on the U.S. Navy's extraction of waters from a river. During World War II, the Navy obtained a permit from the commonwealth to extrac...

The court holds that an environmental group's claim that the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and a state military department violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by failing to prepare an environmental assessment (EA) in connection with plans to build a military center is not ripe. ...

The court holds that the owner of a retail development lacked standing to bring Federal-Aid Highway Act (FAHA) and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) actions against the Secretary of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration (FHwA) for failing to prevent a county from approving the...

The court holds that pollution exclusion clauses preclude insurers' obligation to defend and indemnify a rubber products manufacturing company in an environmental liability suit brought against it by third parties after contamination was discovered on the company's property. The court first holds th...

The court upholds the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS') denial of Missouri's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for certain documents produced by a nonprofit corporation involved in the conservation and protection of the Missouri River. The corporation is made up of fish and wildlife co...

The court holds that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) guidelines for carrying out the certification of Waste Isolation Pilot Plant's (WIPP's) compliance with radioactive waste disposal regulations are specific enough to qualify as "criteria" under 40 C.F.R. Part 191. The court note...

The court holds that a D.C. Circuit ruling that the U.S. Department of the Interior's (DOI's) decision to assess royalties on nonrecoupable take-or-pay payments was an arbitrary and capricious reading of DOI's own rules applies to an oil company that was assessed with such royalties, but not to a pe...

The court affirms a district court's denial of attorney fees to an environmental group whose lawsuit challenging the adequacy of a Federal Highway Administration (FHwA) environmental assessment (EA) was not a material factor in the FHwA's decision to supplement the EA. The court first holds that the...

The court holds that three different pollution exclusion clauses in various insurance policies bar a corporation's claims that its insurers must defend and indemnify it against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) claims for investigation and cleanup costs at a contaminated dump site. ...

The court holds that county ordinance provisions directing solid waste to designated in-state facilities do not discriminate against interstate commerce; however, provisions that prevent the delivery of waste to out-of-state processors violate the U.S. Commerce Clause. The court first holds that the...