A California appellate court reversed a lower court decision dismissing a clean energy group's petition challenging a city's certification and approval of an environmental impact report (EIR) prepared for a proposed update to the city's general plan. The group argued that the approved final EIR fell...

The Fourth Circuit, in an unpublished opinion, affirmed a lower court decision dismissing landowner's negligence and trespass claims against natural gas drilling companies for alleged well water contamination. The landowners failed to connect any allegedly wrongful conduct by the companies with the ...

A district court held that an insurance company need not indemnify or defend a waste hauler in an underlying class action lawsuit for contamination stemming from their transport and disposal of "produced fluid waste" from oil and gas drilling operations into an open, unlined dump site. The hauler's ...

The Tenth Circuit held that landowners lacked standing to challenge two wind energy projects in Wyoming. FERC certified the projects under the Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act, which seeks to promote renewable energy sources by requiring utilities to buy power from small facilities that meet...

A district court denied industry groups' motion to intervene in a CAA citizen suit concerning EPA's alleged failure to review the ozone NAAQS in a timely manner. The underlying lawsuit concerns whether EPA has failed to perform a mandatory duty to review the ozone air quality standards, and whether ...

A California appellate court held that California's Commission on State Mandates erred in ruling that certain requirements set forth in a municipal stormwater sewer permit for Los Angeles County constituted unfunded state mandates subject to reimbursement under the state constitution. Although the p...

A district court issued an injunction ordering the U.S. Forest Service to prohibit industrial equipment—known as "mega-loads"—headed for the Alberta Sands from being transported along a highway that runs through the Nez Perce Reservation and the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest until certain...

The Ninth Circuit held that environmental groups lacked standing to compel the Washington State Department of Ecology and other regional agencies to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from the state's five oil refineries under the CAA. The groups claimed that the agencies failed to define emission li...