A district court vacated the Army Corps of Engineers' decision to grant an easement under the Mineral Leasing Act for the Dakota Access Pipeline, which runs from North Dakota to Illinois, after previously ruling that the Corps must prepare an EIS for the pipeline to comply with NEPA. The court found...
A district court dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction a suit concerning EPA's CAA obligations to regulate pollution from coke ovens. Environmental groups argued the CAA required EPA to perform a risk assessment every time it revised its technology-based standards for a hazardous polluti...
The Tenth Circuit held that EPA erred in denying an environmental group's petition to review the renewal of a state-issued Title V operating permit for a coal-fired power plant in Utah. The group's petition argued that EPA should object to the renewal because it failed to "assure compliance" with al...
The Ninth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for BLM in a challenge to its 2017 offer and sale of oil and gas leases in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. Environmental groups argued that BLM violated NEPA by failing to prepare an EA or EIS for the lease sale and failing to take a hard look at it...
The Ninth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for BLM in a challenge to the agency's "geld and release" plan for wild horses in northeastern Nevada. An animal rights group argued that BLM violated NEPA by failing to prepare an EIS for the plan because five of the Act's intensity factors demonstrated t...
A district court vacated a timber harvesting project in Tongass National Forest after previously ruling that the Forest Service violated NEPA, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, and the National Forest Management Act when it authorized the project. Both the plaintiff environmental ...
The Tenth Circuit upheld the Forest Service's approval of two forest-thinning projects in the Santa Fe National Forest. Environmental groups and individuals argued the Service violated NEPA by failing to adequately consider the projects' effects on inventoried roadless areas and their cumulative imp...
The Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part a district court's dismissal of a suit challenging an automobile company's use of diesel-cheat devices to evade compliance with federally mandated emission standards. Two counties argued the company's installation of and modification to the dev...
The Fifth Circuit upheld EPA's decision to reject a challenge to a CAA Title V permit it issued for expansion of a plant in Baytown, Texas. Environmental groups requested that EPA reject the permit on the grounds that the underlying Title I preconstruction permit allowing the expansion was invalid. ...
The First Circuit vacated an air permit issued by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MDEP) for a proposed natural gas compressor station that is part of a natural gas pipeline connecting the northeastern U.S. and Canada. Nearby municipalities and citizens argued that MDEP impr...