The Fifth Circuit dismissed an individual's lawsuit against an offshore drilling company on behalf of the United States under the False Claims Act. The individual alleged that the company, his former employer, ordered him to illegally dump oil and other hazardous substances into the Gulf of Mexico a...

The D.C. Circuit denied a petition challenging a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) order directing a pipeline operator that expanded its pipeline and added compressors to carry gas shipped by several new customers to allocate the added electricity costs only to the customers for whom the e...

A California appellate court affirmed a lower court judgment ordering a city to prepare an environmental impact report for a 120-unit senior housing facility, a 6,500 square-foot community senior center, and a four-acre public park. There is substantial evidence that the project's increase in popula...

A California appellate court affirmed a lower court decision denying a property owner's petition challenging changes to a city's zoning rules. The city's general land use plan initially called for future annexation of certain property owned by the plaintiff. In 2004, the city council adopted a new p...

The Tenth Circuit reversed a lower court's grant of attorneys fees in favor of an environmental group under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) despite its obtaining a preliminary injunction against the U.S. Forest Service halting an imminent timber sale in the Black Hills National Forest. A prel...

An Illinois appellate court affirmed a lower court decision that an excavation and demolition company violated the Illinois Environmental Protection Act when it disposed of whole trees in a quarry. In a previous case, the court found that leaves are not "of the same nature as garbage or sludge which...

A California appellate court affirmed a lower court decision upholding amendments to the Water Quality Control Plan for the Sacramento and San Joaquin River basin. Defendants presented sufficient evidence to demonstrate that Deer Creek does not support a viable population of rainbow trout and that t...

A district court denied a motion to dismiss claims under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and New York law for lack of evidence demonstrating defendant contributed waste to the site in question. Plaintiff's expert's professional experience and the me...

The First Circuit denied Massachusetts' petition for review of a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) order denying its request to participate directly in a re-licensing proceeding of two nuclear energy plants as a "party" before the agency issues its renewal decision. Massachusetts argued that it mu...

An Illinois appellate court reversed and remanded a preliminary injunction enjoining a farmer from constructing or operating a hog farm on his property. Completion of the hog confinement building does not constitute the construction of a "new facility" under the Illinois Livestock Management Facilit...