A district court dismissed a mining industry association's action challenging DOI Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) regulations allocating the burden of proof in five types of administrative proceedings under SMCRA. The association argued that the regulations impermissibly shift the ultimate...

A district court held unconstitutional California legislation (SB 990) that prescribes cleanup rules that apply only to a former federal nuclear research and rocket testing facility and criminalizes any sale or disposition of the property until it is cleaned up in accordance with the standards ...

A district court held that mining interests may go forward with their CWA, APA, and SMCRA claims against EPA in connection with memoranda and guidance documents concerning permitting processes for coal mining. The documents meet the criteria of final agency actions. The government's view of ...

A district court held that a property owner that filed a RCRA, CAA, and CWA citizen suit against a mine may not intervene in the United States' and Missouri's enforcement action against the same mine for the same violations. Because the owner was concerned that several issues in its pending lawsuit ...

A district court denied a triglyceride diesel fuel manufacturer's motion to preliminarily enjoin the American Society for Testing and Materials' (ATSM's) promulgation of a proposed new standard and guidelines for biofuels that would limit, if not bar, the use of triglyceride diesel fuel and rel...

The Third Circuit held that a property owner's nuisance, negligence, and strict liability claims against a neighboring landfill are not continuing torts and, thus, are barred by the statute of limitations. In 1991, the owner's predecessor in interest was denied leave to intervene in a cost recovery ...

The Michigan Supreme Court held that a company's plan to discharge contaminated water from an environmental cleanup site in the Manistee River watershed into a previously unpolluted site in the AuSable River watershed was manifestly unreasonable and that the state agency should be held accou...

A district court vacated new safety requirements the DOI issued for oil and gas operators in the outer continental shelf. The requirements, issued in a notice to lessees, range from submitting certifications to performing additional safety procedures. The requirements were set aside because the gove...

The D.C. Circuit vacated an NRC decision in which it refused to consider the value of a company's "goodwill" in determining whether the company was exempt from certain financial requirements necessary for the decommissioning of a uranium processing plant. In 2007 and 2008, the NRC granted th...

A Maryland court remanded certain provisions in a general discharge permit for mining operations and concrete plants. Petitioners—the owners of mining companies and concrete manufacturing plants throughout the state of Maryland—correctly argued that the wet weather total suspended solids numeric...