The Ninth Circuit held that the BLM violated NEPA when it approved a mining company's amendment to a plan of operations for an existing mineral exploration project in Nevada. The BLM took a hard look at the direct impacts of the amendment and its discussion of reasonable alternatives was proper, but...

The Tenth Circuit rejected environmental and citizens' groups challenge to a 2003 BLM resource management plan amendment allowing natural gas development in Wyoming's Powder River Basin. The groups alleged that BLM violated NEPA when it refused to study in detail their proposal to phase development ...

The Second Circuit held that the USDA complied with NEPA and the Plant Protection Act when it adopted new regulations for the importation of solid wood packaging material into the United States. The final rule required that all solid wood packaging material be either heat treated to a minimum wood c...

The Eleventh Circuit upheld a lower court decision dismissing for lack of subject matter jurisdiction two lawsuits filed by a Native American tribe challenging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' plans to replace a mile of the ground-level Tamiami Trail (U.S. Highway 41) with a bridge to increase the ...

The Ninth Circuit dismissed environmental groups' claims against the U.S. Forest Service challenging revisions it made to regulations implementing the Forest Service Decisionmaking and Appeals Reform Act (ARA). The revisions limit the scope and availability of notice, comment, and appeals procedures...

A district court granted an individual's motion to remand to state court her personal injury lawsuit against a chemical company and its successors for damages stemming from the unlawful disposal of dioxin and furan waste at a chemical plant in Nitro, West Virginia. She alleges that her exposure to t...

The court holds that the doctrine of res judicata does not bar landowners' third-party state-law contribution and indemnification claim against a neighboring company for cleanup costs the state incurred in its efforts to remedy petroleum contamination on the landowners' property. The company previou...

The court dismisses an individual's Clean Water Act (CWA) citizen suit against an electricity company for lack of standing. The individual claimed that a company violated the CWA by discharging pollutants into Echo Bay, New York. The court first holds that although the individual's amended interroga...

The court dismisses on ripeness grounds an environmental group's claim that the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, and Executive Order No. 11990 with respect to the proposed e...

The court holds that it lacks subject matter jurisdiction over a coalition's claims that federal agencies violated a variety of statutes, including the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Historic Preservation Act, in approving the design and construction of a World War II Memorial on...