Sierra Club v. Jewell
The D.C. Circuit held that environmental groups have standing to challenge DOI's decision to remove the Blair Mountain Battlefield—the site of a large 1921 coal miner uprising in West Virginia—from the National Register of Historic Places. Shortly after the Battlefield was listed in 2009, the si...
High Country Conservation Advocates v. United States Forest Service
A district court vacated the government's approval of on-the-ground mining exploration activities in a part of western Colorado's North Fork Valley and enjoined the intervening mining companies from proceeding with the project until the agencies comply with NEPA. Although the federal agencies provid...
Kunaknana v. United States Army Corps of Engineers
A district court held that an environmental group lacked standing to challenge a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit issued to an oil company to fill certain wetlands in the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska for a future drill site. The group's members have not demonstrated the requisite injury in...
Alec L. v. McCarthy
The D.C. Circuit dismissed teenagers' lawsuit against the federal government for failing to cap greenhouse gas emissions. Invoking the federal question statute, 28 U.S.C. §1331, as the basis for subject matter jurisdiction, the minors alleged that the federal defendants are trustees of essential na...
Sierra Club v. FutureGen Industrial Alliance
A district court dismissed an environmental group's citizen suit in which it alleged a power company was attempting to construct a major modification of its coal-fired power plant in Illinois without a PSD permit in violation of the CAA. The project will physically replace an existing boiler with a ...
North Dakota v. Heydinger
A district court held that Minnesota's New Generation Energy Act, which establishes energy and environmental standards related to carbon dioxide emissions, constitutes impermissible extraterritorial legislation and is a per se violation of the dormant Commerce Clause. The statute's plain language ap...