A California appellate court held that a city council may not skip California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review for a development project by using Election Code §9214(a) to approve the project via a voter petition instead of holding an election under §9214(b). When a development project is a...

An Indiana appeals court reversed the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission's approval of a purchase and sales agreement for "substitute natural gas" an energy company plans to produce at its new coal gasification plant. The contract meets the common law definition of an enforceable contract. It als...

The Second Circuit upheld the dismissal of two lawsuits challenging a Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) directive directing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to take "prudential actions" to protect themselves against risks raised by Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs that impose priority- o...

A California appellate court held that a city's certification of an environmental impact report (EIR) for a development project covering 2,600 acres of undeveloped land for single-family dwelling units and a village center violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Below, the trial co...

New York's highest court held that the New York City School Construction Authority's EIS for the construction of a campus of four public schools in an area formerly used as a railroad yard violated the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA). Because the site contains significant soil and gro...

A California appellate court held that a local ballot measure requiring a city to seek competitive bidding for future trash service contracts was not a "project" under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) subject to environmental review. A city resident alleged that the city violated CEQA...

A California appellate court upheld a county's approval of a project to expand an existing wood veneer manufacturing facility in order to permit cogeneration of electricity for resale. Environmental and citizens groups filed a petition for review, claiming that the environmental impact report for th...

A district court enjoined a county from enforcing a solid waste flow control ordinance that, among other things, requires all waste collected in the city to be disposed of at a city landfill. The city had entered into franchise contracts with a number of haulers that allowed them to dispose of waste...

A California court dismissed all but three claims raised by an environmental group challenging a county's environmental impact report for a fairground expansion project. The group raised concerns about impacts of the proposed development on wetlands, biological resources, traffic, greenhouse gases, ...