The court holds that punitive criminal fines imposed against a bankrupt laboratory for post-bankruptcy petition conduct that violated the Pennsylvania Solid Waste Management Act are not administrative expenses that receive priority status under the Bankruptcy Code. The court first holds that noncomp...

The court holds that the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement's (OSM's) denial of a surface mining permit to a company was not a taking. The company's mining plan would invade the rock strata overlying an aquifer that supplies a local community with drinking water. The court first ho...

The court holds that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) practice of overfiling in those states where it has authorized state enforcement of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) oversteps the Agency's authority under the Act. EPA initiated a RCRA enforcement action agains...

The court holds that an automobile manufacturers association is entitled to attorney fees in connection with an underlying action in which New York's zero emission vehicle sales requirement for model years 1998-2002 was held preempted under Clean Air Act (CAA) §209. The court first holds that the a...

The court holds that it has subject matter jurisdiction over an environmental group's Clean Air Act (CAA) citizen suit that alleged emission and reporting violations at a refinery. The court first holds that under CAA §304, the group provided the refinery with adequate notice of the violation befor...

The court holds that the U.S. Forest Service complied with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when it issued a special use permit to a helicopter-guided skiing company in Chugach National Forest in Alaska without conducting an environmental assessment (EA) or an environmental impact statem...

The court denies in part and grants in part the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) petition for rehearing of a decision holding that EPA's revised national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for ozone were not based on intelligible principles in the Clean Air Act (CAA) for setting suc...

The court upholds two Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) orders that refused on standing grounds a radioactive waste disposal facility's request for hearing and intervention in the licensing proceedings of two competitor disposal facilities. The court first holds that the NRC correctly stated that ...

The court grants automakers' motion to stay their challenge to Massachusetts' zero emission vehicle standards pending the automakers' appeal of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ruling in the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. In an earlier decision, in which the automakers claim that...

The court holds that it lacks jurisdiction to review a mining corporation's Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) claims arising from a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) document addressing whether certain mining processes produced hazardous waste. The document discussed the rare ea...