The court holds that parties may not contractually alter the standard of judicial review for an arbitration panel's award of damages to individuals for an oil company's pollution of a creek on the individuals' property and, therefore, affirms the panel's award of damages. After initially denying any...

The court holds that an electric utility company that was a 70% owner of a nuclear power plant in Iowa can deduct 15 years' worth of Energy Policy Act (EPACT) assessments in the tax year that the liability was determined. In 1992, Congress enacted the EPACT, which established a fund for the decontam...

The court dismisses for lack of jurisdiction a city's interlocutory appeal in a citizen suit brought by an environmental group alleging Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act violations by the city. A district court signed and entered the city's proposed order for an interlocutory appeal, and the parties...

The court dismisses a mining association's action challenging U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) regulations concerning the use of a computerized database programmed to identify links between surface mining permit violators and applicants, individuals, and corporations. The association argued tha...

The court dismisses on res judicata grounds Native American tribes' claim that they did not have to provide pulp and paper mills with documents concerning the tribes' regulation under the Clean Water Act of the mills' wastewater discharge into rivers flowing through the tribes' reservations. After t...

The court dismisses for lack of subject matter jurisdiction a suit against a trucking company by an individual that alleged he suffered permanent physical injuries as a result of transporting hazardous waste for the company. The individual asserted federal question jurisdiction on the ground that hi...

The court reverses a district court decision and holds that environmental groups could intervene in a suit brought by a counties' association to have the presidential proclamation establishing the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah declared illegal. The court first holds that the en...

The court holds that a trailer park owner is liable under New York Navigation Law Article 12 (known as the Oil Spill Act) for the cost of cleaning up a kerosene spill from a 275-gallon tank owned and maintained by a tenant of the trailer park. After the tank fell on the ground in 1992, it spilled ke...

The court holds that the Secretary of Commerce abused his discretion and acted in contrivance of the law when he issued a finding that triggered a change in the dolphin-safe label standard for tuna sold in the United States. Through the International Dolphin Conservation Program Act (IDCPA), Congres...

The court holds that two officers of a corporation are personally liable under the Connecticut Water Pollution Control Act for water contamination caused by leaks from oil tanks on the corporation's property. The court first holds that under Connecticut Water Pollution Control Act §§22a-432, which...