The D.C. Circuit held unripe an oil and natural gas association's petition for review challenging a 2008 EPA regulation deregulating many hazardous secondary materials under RCRA. The association argued that EPA erred in not including in the deregulation a category of hazardous secondary materia...
The D.C. Circuit vacated NRC rulemakings concerning the temporary storage and permanent disposal of spent nuclear fuel. Four states, an Indian community, and a number of environmental groups filed a petition for review challenging NRC's "waste confidence decision" (WCD), which, among other thing...
The Ninth Circuit upheld the constitutionality of Hawaii's regulation of commercial weddings on the state's unencumbered beaches in all respects but one. A pastor and wedding planning companies filed suit against the state's Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) alleging that its permit re...
The D.C. Circuit held that the DOE Secretary's 2010 determination that there was no basis for suspending, or otherwise adjusting, annual fees collected from nuclear power plant owners and operators following the government's decision to discontinue its development of Yucca Mountain violated the Nucl...
The Michigan Supreme Court held that under the state's Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act (NREPA), a municipality can be held responsible for, and required to prevent, a discharge of raw sewage that originates within its borders, even when the raw sewage is discharged by a privat...
The Ninth Circuit dismissed environmental and Alaska Native groups' petitions challenging the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's (BOEM's) approval of an oil company's exploration plan to drill in the Beaufort Sea. BOEM's decision that the company's exploration plan complied with the Outer Conti...
A California appellate court held that the California Coastal Commission exceeded its jurisdiction when it approved amendments to a city's certified local coastal program at the request of state agencies and over the objection of the city. The proposed amendments would override the city's local land...
A district court awarded a company $140,500.72 in costs stemming from an underlying CERCLA case. The company was a prevailing party in the underlying action and is therefore entitled to the costs it seeks. The defendant argued that due to the complexity and difficulty of the case, its good faith...