A California court rejected a challenge to the emissions offset component of California's greenhouse gas (GHG) cap-and-trade program promulgated by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) under the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. Under the program, all offsets must be additional, meaning tha...

A North Carolina court held that the state's environmental agency has the authority to require an egg farm to obtain a NPDES permit to prevent airborne pollutants from reaching state waters. The egg farm does not make any direct discharges into state waters, but ammonia and other pollutants may ente...

A district court, in a 114-page opinion, held that a regional planning agency violated the California Environmental Quality Act when it approved the expansion of a ski resort near Lake Tahoe. The evidence fails to support the agency's finding that a reduced alternative was not economically infeasibl...

A California appellate court affirmed a lower court decision denying a conservation group's petition seeking to vacate a city's certification of an environmental impact report (EIR) for the development of a park. The group argued that the EIR wrongly defined the project to exclude pending residentia...

A California appellate court affirmed a lower court decision denying a municipal water district's petition challenging a water replenishment district's "water emergency" declaration for California's Central Basin. The water district argued that the replenishment district failed to comply with the Ca...

A California appellate court reversed a lower court decision granting lumber companies' petition to delist coho salmon from the California list of endangered species. The companies' petition sought to show that there was no basis for the California Fish & Game Commission's 1995 finding that coho...

A California court held that the environmental impact report (EIR) San Diego prepared for its regional transport plan and accompanying sustainable communities strategy violates the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) because it failed to adequately address greenhouse gas emissions. The EIR i...

The California Supreme Court held that all subdivisions, including the conversion of a mobile home park from tenant occupancy to resident ownership, are "developments" for purposes of the California Coastal Act. Nor does the Subdivision Map Act exempt such conversions from the need to comply with ot...

A California appellate court reversed a lower court decision denying a petition challenging a city's certification of a final environmental impact report (EIR) for a project to amend the city's "sphere of influence" to include an undeveloped portion of a university campus in order to allow the city ...

A California appellate court affirmed a lower court decision dismissing a citizen group's lawsuit seeking to vacate a city's approval of a "big box" retail store. The group alleged that the approval violated planning and zoning laws. Their suit, however, is time barred under Cal. Gov. Code §65009(c...