The Tenth Circuit, in a 120-page opinion, reversed a lower court decision setting aside and permanently enjoining the U.S. Forest Service's Roadless Area Conservation Rule. In setting aside the rule, the lower court held that the Service violated the Wilderness Act of 1964 and NEPA. But the Wilderne...

The court holds en banc that the arbitrary and capricious standard of review applies to agency decisions not to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) under the National Environmental Policy Act. The court overrules its prior decisions holding that a reasonableness standard of review should...

The court holds that the district court, in applying the rule of reason, did not abuse its discretion in dissolving an injunction when it held that the environmental impact statements (EISs) produced by the National Park Service (NPS), concerning the impact of any possible future mining activity in ...

The court, in a sequel case to Seattle Audubon Society v. Evans, 22 ELR 20372, enjoins the U.S. Forest Service from making additional timber sales in U.S. Forest Service Regions Five and Six that would log suitable habitat for the northern spotted owl until revised standards and guidelines complying...

The court holds that state and federal agencies involved in a proposed port project in Searsport, Maine, reasonably decided to restrict the analysis in an environmental impact statement (EIS) of secondary impacts from the project to four light-dry industries. The court also holds that the district c...

The court holds that the presumption against extraterritorial application of statutes does not apply where the conduct regulated by the statute occurs primarily, if not exclusively, in the United States, and the alleged extraterritorial effect of the statute will be felt in Antarctica, and remands f...

The court dismisses claims by owners of property adjacent to a natural gas pipeline that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Natural Gas Act (NGA), and the Due Process Clause of the U.S. Constitution when it issued a certificate ...

The court holds that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) must prepare a new environmental assessment (EA) for the shipment of 118 spent nuclear fuel rods from Taiwan through the port of Hampton Roads, Virginia, to a processing facility on the Savannah River in South Carolina, because its 1991 EA for...

The court holds that the U.S. Forest Service did not arbitrarily or capriciously conclude that no significant environmental impact would result from the Calispell Timber Sale in Washington State, offered pursuant to the Colville National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan, and, therefore, no e...

The court holds that environmental groups and private individuals are not entitled to a preliminary injunction prohibiting the U.S. Forest Service from implementing animal damage control (ADC) plans to reduce coyote populations in the Dixie and the Fishlake National Forests in Utah. The ADC programs...