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Cooperstown Holstein Corp. v. Town of Middlefield
A New York court upheld a town's enactment of a zoning law that bans oil and gas drilling, including hydraulic fracturing, within the geographical borders of the township. The holder of two gas leases argued that §23-0303 of New York's Environmental Conservation Law preempts the zoning law. The...
Oil Spill by the Oil Rig "Deepwater Horizon"
A district court held that BP and Anadarko Petroleum are responsible parties under OPA for pollution stemming from the Deepwater Horizon disaster and subject to civil penalties under the CWA, but that issues remain as to whether Transocean can be held liable under the CWA. BP and Anadarko co-owned...
Noble Energy, Inc. v. Salazar
The D.C. Circuit remanded a Minerals Management Service (MMS) order obligating an oil and gas company to plug permanently and to abandon its oil wells off the coast of California. The company argued that its contractual obligations under the lease, including any duties to plug and abandon the well, ...
West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, Inc. v. Huffman
The Fourth Circuit upheld an injunction requiring the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to obtain NPDES permits for reclamation efforts at abandoned coal mining sites. The text of the CWA, as well as corresponding EPA regulations, confirm that the permit requirements apply...
Jones v. United States
A district court held that North Carolina's general 10-year statute of repose does not bar a woman's lawsuit against the United States for injuries stemming from exposure to contaminated drinking water at a military base in North Carolina 20 years earlier. The North Carolina Legislature did not inte...
Florida Wildlife Federation v. Jackson
A district court upheld EPA's rule setting numeric nutrient criteria for Florida except in two respects: the stream criteria and the default downstream-protection criteria for unimpaired lakes. In 2009, recognizing that the state's narrative criterion was insufficient to control Florida's widesp...
Anschutz Exploration Corp. v. Town of Dryden
A New York court upheld a town's zoning amendment that bans hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking) within its jurisdiction. The zoning amendment was enacted in response to a petition from town residents concerned about hydrofracking's impact on ground and surface water supplies. An energy company ...
PPL Montana, LLC v. Montana
The U.S. Supreme Court reversed a state court decision that Montana may charge rent from an electric company that owns dams on the Missouri, Madison, and Clark Fork rivers. The Montana Supreme Court held that title to the riverbeds passed to Montana when it became a state in 1889 and awarded alm...