The court holds that the Illinois Coal Act violates the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The Act requires public utilities to devise Clean Air Act (CAA) compliance plans and present them to the Illinois Commerce Commission for approval. The Act requires the utilities and the Commission to t...

The court holds that the denial by an Oregon city and the Oregon Department of Parks and Recreation (Department) of oceanfront property owners' permit application to construct a seawall in the dry sand area of their property does not constitute an uncompensated taking under the Fifth Amendment to th...

The court declines to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over state-law claims in an action brought by a municipal owner of a contaminated landfill asserting two Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) claims and nine state-law claims against waste depositors t...

The court holds that under New Mexico law the doctrine of strict liability may apply to the storage and disposal of chemical wastes that pose a threat to health and welfare. New Mexico has adopted the doctrine of absolute liability for abnormally dangerous activities set forth in Restatement of Tort...

The court holds that a Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) enforcement action by the U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) against mining companies was not a regulatory taking of the companies' property. The action required the co...

The court holds that the state of Nebraska's challenge to the siting of a regional low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) disposal facility in that state is barred by the regional LLRW disposal compact's 60-day limitation period. The state claimed that the Central Interstate Low-Level Radioactive Waste ...

The court holds that under Pennsylvania law, the "sudden and accidental" exception to a pollution exclusion in a comprehensive general liability (CGL) insurance policy does not cover an on-going discharge of landfill pollutants that eventually find their way into the surrounding environment. The hol...

The court holds that South Carolina regulations and a permit condition prohibiting a landfill from receiving nonhazardous waste generated outside a seven-county region unconstitutionally burden interstate commerce. The regulations required any applicant for a permit to construct a nonhazardous solid...

The court holds that an insurer is not liable under a tenant's comprehensive general liability policies for the property owner's cleanup costs resulting from a diesel fuel leak from an underground fuel tank that the tenants installed on the leased property. After obtaining a judgment from the tenant...

The court upholds the U.S. Postal Service's (Postal Service's) determination that an environmental impact statement (EIS) is not required under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for a project involving the Postal Service's sale of its leasehold interest in an old post office site, the con...