The court upholds some provisions and strikes down other provisions of an Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) interim final rule that required a surface mining permit applicant to disclose all environmental violations it incurred at its mining operations. The court first holds...

The court holds that the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement's (OSM's) denial of a surface mining permit to a company was not a taking. The company's mining plan would invade the rock strata overlying an aquifer that supplies a local community with drinking water. The court first ho...

The court holds that three electric utilities may maintain their breach of contract claims against the government for the failure to begin by January 1, 1998, the disposal of spent nuclear fuel waste produced at the utilities' plant as agreed to in a 1983 contract. The government conceded that it wo...

The court reverses the dismissal of a utility's breach of contract claim against the government for failing to dispose of the utility's spent nuclear waste beginning no later than January 1, 1998, as agreed to in a 1983 contract. The government notified the utility that it would be unable to begin d...

The court holds that it lacked original jurisdiction under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) to review an environmental group's petition to set aside a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) order that provides a process for determining whether certain radioactive waste streams are waste incidental to re...

The Sixth Circuit affirms a district court judgment upholding the Interior Board of Land Appeals' (IBLA's) decision that a mining company violated federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) regulations requiring the elimination of cliff-like rock walls known as "highwalls" at its sur...

The court holds that the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) amended contract with a nuclear power plant operator constituted a direct payment of Nuclear Waste Fund (NWF) monies and was unlawful under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA). DOE entered into contracts with the nuclear power plants to fu...

The court holds that the citizen suit provision of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA), §520(f), provides a federal cause of action for the recovery of damages resulting from violation of state regulations that are a part of the state's surface coal mining and reclamation regulat...

The court denies several utilities' and states' broad request for a writ of mandamus that would require the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to begin disposing of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act's (NWPA's) January 31, 1998, deadline. But the court precludes DOE from excusing ...

The court holds that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) fulfilled its statutory obligations under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) to ensure that Nevada had sufficient funds enabling it to perform essential nuclear waste dump oversight activities at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The court first holds ...