The court upholds the U.S. Forest Service's decision allowing the salvage of dead and/or dying trees on up to 250 acres to proceed without the preparation of an environmental impact statement or environmental assessment. The methodology the Forest Service used in promulgating the categorical exclusi...

The court rejects a mining association's statutory and constitutional claims challenging a 1999 Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) rule defining "valid existing rights." The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act prohibits new surface coal mining operations on certain lan...

The court holds that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by categorically refusing to consider the environmental effects of a potential terrorist attack in connection with its approval of a proposed spent fuel storage installation. The NRC ar...

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 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 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...