The Fifth Circuit held that a local ordinance that prevents a corporation that owns state-granted mineral interests under and around a lake from drilling within 1,000 feet of that lake is preempted by Louisiana's comprehensive regulation of oil and gas drilling. The ordinance, therefore, is invalid ...

A California appellate court affirmed a trial court decision ordering a county to set aside its approval of a single-family residence within a riparian area designated as an environmental resource of critical concern. The county found generally that any adverse environmental impacts were eliminated ...

A California appellate court reversed a lower court decision ordering a county to set aside its decision extending the expiration date of the tentative subdivision map for a residential housing project. Contrary to the lower court's interpretation, §66452.6 of the California Government Code aut...

A district court granted summary judgment against environmental groups on their claim that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) violated the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to perform assessment, evaluation, and determination duties within the Jordan Resource Area in Oregon. The groups failed...

A district court granted in part and denied in part a company's motion in limine to exclude an environmental group's proffered expert testimony in a Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act case. At issue in the trial is the group's claim that the company was a "direct o...

The First Circuit held that U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations that permit synthetic substances to be used in processing organic foods are contrary to the plain language of the Organic Foods Production Act. Similarly, provisions creating an exception to the Act's 12-month requirement for dai...

A California appellate court held that for determining just compensation in a "quick" take eminent domain action, the date of valuation should be the date a deposit of probable compensation was made rather than the date of trial on the issue of just compensation. Under California law, the date of va...

The Ninth Circuit held that California's air pollution control districts are not arms of the state and therefore are not entitled to sovereign immunity under the Eleventh Amendment. To determine whether an entity is an arm of the state, the Ninth Circuit uses a five-point test that looks at whether ...

The Federal Circuit reversed a lower court decision that the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) produced a physical taking of a company's mineral rights. In 1937, the company sold the surface rights of land in the Daniel Boone National Forest to the United States but it retained the ...

A district court granted the state of Washington's motion for partial summary judgment on its claim that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) violated the Washington State Hazardous Waste Management Act (HWMA) when it decided to ship radioactive and hazardous mixed transuranic waste to the Hanford Nu...