The Eighth Circuit upheld FERC's decision to place a Colorado energy wholesaler into Zone 17 of a regional transmission organization authorized by the Commission to provide electric transmission services across a multistate region. A member of Zone 17 argued that FERC's decision was arbitrary and ca...

A district court vacated a nationwide permit reissued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that allowed for construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline across waterways. Environmental groups argued the reissuance violated the ESA by failing to initiate programmatic consultation. The court found that dec...

A district court held that NMFS violated the ESA by approving a U.S. lobster fishery without adequately considering the fishery's impact on the endangered North Atlantic right whale. Conservation groups argued the agency violated the ESA by failing to include an incidental take statement (ITS) in it...

The Kansas Supreme Court held unlawful a rate design approved by the Kansas Corporation Commission under which utilities charged residential customers generating their own electricity from a renewable source (DG customers) a higher price than they charged non-DG customers. The utilities argued that ...

A district court denied a motion for a preliminary injunction in a challenge against FWS' failure to act on pending elephant trophy import permit applications. Hunting and tourism groups and elephant sport hunters sought an injunction requiring FWS to expeditiously process all pending and subsequent...

A district court denied local government entities' and landowners' request to temporarily halt construction of a 430-mile natural gas pipeline in Texas. Plaintiffs argued that allowing construction without an incidental take permit under §10 of the ESA would result in an unlawful take of endangered...

The Eighth Circuit upheld the dismissal of a constitutional challenge to Minnesota's right of first refusal (ROFR) law. An electric transmission company argued the law, which granted incumbent transmission owners a ROFR to construct, own, and maintain transmission lines that connect to their existin...

The Tenth Circuit reversed and remanded a district court ruling upholding FWS' designation of critical habitat for the endangered jaguar. Ranching groups challenged the designation because it did not comport with the ESA's requirement that such areas be "essential for the conservation of the species...