The U.S. Supreme Court held that Oklahoma statutes that favor in-state water appropriation permit applicants over out-of-state permit applicants do not violate the Commerce Clause and are not preempted by the Red River Water Compact—an interstate water compact that allocates water among Texas, Okl...

The Seventh Circuit upheld a FERC order allowing a regional electricity transmission system to apportion costs for new power lines necessary to bring power generated from wind farms in the Great Plains to urban centers among all the utilities drawing electricity from the grid. The costs would be all...

The Eleventh Circuit upheld the dismissal of a Native American tribe's lawsuit challenging the government's management of the Central and Southern Florida Project for Flood Control in the Everglades. The tribe complained that the project diverts excessive flood waters over tribal lands, in part to p...

The D.C. Circuit held that a power company may not appeal a lower court decision that USDA's Rural Utilities Service violated NEPA before granting approvals and financial assistance to the company's expansion of its coal-fired power plant. An environmental group filed suit against the Service for fa...

A district court denied a motion to reconsider its earlier dismissal of a lawsuit seeking declaratory and injunctive relief based on the federal government's alleged failure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Plaintiffs—five teenage citizens and two environmental groups—argued that each of the ...

The Fifth Circuit held that under New York law, an insurance company has a duty to defend a power company in an underlying lawsuit filed against it by EPA and Louisiana's environmental agency for alleged CAA and state law violations. The insurer argued that the forms of relief covered by the policy�...

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a FCC declaratory ruling that state and local zoning authorities have 150 days to process siting applications for new wireless towers and antennas. Section 332(c)(7)B) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, requires state or local governments to act on siting ap...