The Ninth Circuit held that BLM violated NEPA when it approved a proposed molybdenum mining operation near Eureka, Nevada. Environmental groups filed suit against BLM, challenging the agency's analysis of the project's cumulative air impacts and the baseline levels of certain air pollutants, and the...

The D.C. Circuit affirmed in part a lower court's decision that a climate scientist may go forward with his defamation suit against two journalists for writing articles that criticized his conclusions about climate change and accused him of deception and academic and scientific misconduct. The journ...

The Federal Circuit affirmed in part and remanded in part a lower court decision dismissing a helium extraction company's breach of contract claims against the United States. In 1994, the parties entered a contract under which BLM gave the company the right to extract helium gas from roughly 21,000 ...

A district court adopted a magistrate judge's recommendations and denied motions to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a group of young people against the U.S. government for failing to protect them from climate change. The plaintiffs alleged that the government has known for decades that carbon dioxide (...

The Ninth Circuit upheld NMFS' decision to list a distinct population segment (DPS) of the Pacific bearded seal under the ESA based on future impacts of climate change. Using climate projections, NMFS determined that even though the species is not presently endangered, the loss of sea ice over shall...