A district court enjoined the expansion of an underground coal mine into a roadless area in the Gunnison National Forest. Environmental groups argued that OSM's approval of the expansion violated NEPA by failing to consider methane flaring as an alternative. The court found that OSM was required to ...
A district court preliminarily enjoined BLM from implementing its 2019 amendments to plans for oil and gas permitting and licensing on greater sage-grouse habitat in seven states. Environmental groups argued that the six EISs that BLM issued to amend the plans violated NEPA by failing to consider re...
A district court dismissed a lawsuit brought by a Hawaiian resident alleging that an early start to a county construction project harmed two endangered species—the Hawaiian hawk and Hawaiian hoary bat—in violation of the ESA. The resident argued that the county violated its EIS by allowing const...
A district court granted summary judgment to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in a challenge to the Corps' approval of construction of a terminal groin to mitigate shoreline erosion in a North Carolina town. A conservation group first argued that the third-party contractor who submitted the permit a...
A district court preliminarily enjoined the U.S. Forest Service from allowing any timber harvesting, road construction, or other ground-disturbing activities associated with the Service's authorization of a timber sale in Tongass National Forest. Environmental groups, whose members use areas that wo...
The Ninth Circuit affirmed a summary judgment in favor of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and its approval of an industrial-scale wind facility in southern California. A conservation group argued that BIA improperly relied on BLM's EIS for the project because BIA failed to explain its decision no...
The Fifth Circuit dismissed environmental groups' challenge to EPA's issuance of a CWA general permit authorizing discharges from oil and gas facilities operating in the Gulf of Mexico. Environmental groups argued that EPA violated NEPA by failing to prepare an adequate EIS before issuing the permit...
The D.C. Circuit granted in part petitions to vacate a portion of a Federal Communications Commission order that exempted most small cell construction from review under the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and NEPA. Native American tribes and an environmental group argued that eliminating h...
The D.C. Circuit upheld FERC's approval of a natural gas pipeline that would run from northern Pennsylvania to Alabama. Environmental groups and landowners argued that FERC violated NEPA by failing to factor downstream greenhouse gas emissions into its evaluation of the project's environmental impac...
A district court granted in part a motion to preliminarily enjoin BLM from permitting a ranching company to use two grazing allotments that had been authorized by the Secretary of the Interior in response to a presidential pardon of the company's prior criminal convictions. Environmental groups argu...