The court denies a petition for review challenging the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary's decision to grant a license for a liquefied natural gas facility in the Gulf of Mexico. The DOT's environmental impact statement for the project complies with the National Environmental Policy ...

The court upholds an Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) permit allowing a coal company to mine roughly 1,100 acres in the Cumberland River watershed of northeastern Tennessee. An environmental group argues that the environmental assessment is deficient in failing to consider ...

The court rejects landowners' request for a declaratory judgment challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS') determination that their land could not legally be used for goose hunting. FWS regulations prohibit the taking of migratory birds by the aid of baiting or on or over any baited ar...

The court holds that the final environmental impact statement (EIS) the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) prepared in connection with its plan to offer long-term oil and gas leases in a portion of Alaska complies with the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act. Environmentali...

The court holds that the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) cumulative impact analyses prepared in conjunction with two gold mining permits it issued to a mining company violates the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). BLM prepared an environmental impact statement (EIS) for each permit. The fi...

The court holds that the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) and its implementing regulations do not preempt Arkansas regulations governing captive-reared mallard ducks. Captive-bred ducks do not fall within the MBTA's scope of federal permitting requirements, and nothing in the MBTA prohibits a state ...

The court holds that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers took the requisite "hard look" at the environmental and economic impacts of a project that would deepen the Columbia River's navigation channel from 40 feet to 43 feet and add new sites for the disposal of dredged materials. The court concludes t...

The court upholds a lower court decision that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' environmental assessment (EA) for a section of the Atchafalaya Basin, a flood control area in Louisiana, complies with the National Environmental Policy Act. A nonprofit organization of commercial crawfishermen suggested...

A district court issues a preliminary ruling that temporarily blocks the Bureau of Land Managment's (BLM's) plans to lease approximately 1.7 million acres within the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska for oil exploration. The lease concerns vast areas of sensitive wetlands surrounding Lake Teshekp...

A district court preliminarily enjoined a port from dredging two areas of the San Joaquin River's Deep Water Ship Channel in Stockton, California. Environmental groups argued that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' dredge and fill permit authorizing the two dredging activities violated the National E...