The Supreme Court of New Jersey reversed and remanded a lower court decision awarding $375,000 in damages to beachfront property owners whose oceanfront view was obstructed by a dune built to serve as a barrier from powerful storms and ocean surges. A city used its power of eminent domain to constru...

The Fifth Circuit held that the CAA does not preempt a local ordinance that allows taxicabs certified to run on compressed natural gas (CNG) to cut ahead of gasoline-powered taxis in the queue for picking up passengers at Love Field Airport in Dallas. The ordinance does not create an enforceable sta...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed and remanded in part a lower court decision granting summary judgment in favor of the government in a city's lawsuit seeking to set aside DOI's decision to accept in trust, for the benefit of the Tohono O’odham Nation, a 54-acre parcel of land on whi...

The D.C. Circuit upheld EPA's revised NESHAPs for secondary lead smelting facilities. In 2012, acting pursuant to CAA §§112(d)(6) and 112(f)(2), EPA revised the 1995 emissions standards for secondary lead smelting facilities, reducing allowable emissions by 90% and requiring smelters to totally en...

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a FCC declaratory ruling that state and local zoning authorities have 150 days to process siting applications for new wireless towers and antennas. Section 332(c)(7)B) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, requires state or local governments to act on siting ap...

A district court dismissed a city's lawsuit against California state and local air districts challenging fees it must pay to mitigate wind-blown dust from a dry lake bed that exceed state and federal air standards. Section 42316 of the California Health and Safety Code authorized the district to ord...

The Ninth Circuit, in an amended opinion, denied an environmental group's petition challenging EPA's decision to grant two air permits authorizing exploratory drilling operations in the Arctic Ocean by a drillship and its associated fleet of support vessels. The permits require the drillship to comp...

The Fourth Circuit upheld the dismissal of a town's complaint seeking to require the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to honor commitments the Corps made to it and other North Carolina towns when developing plans to widen, deepen, and realign portions of the Cape Fear River navigation channel. The town ...