A district court dismissed environmental groups' claims that emergency orders issued by the state of Louisiana following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita conflict with and/or are preempted by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the Clean Water Act (CWA), and the Clean Air Act (CAA). The or...

The Ninth Circuit vacated as moot a dispute concerning the federal government's policy for listing killer whales under the Endangered Species Act. An environmental group filed suit after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)-Fisheries denied its petition to list the Southern Res...

The Tenth Circuit upheld a lower court decision vacating a prior order that set aside a U.S. Forest Service decision revoking a business' permits to operate a lodge and outfitter-guide service. The business sold its property after the permits were revoked but before the lower court issued its order....

The Eighth Circuit affirmed a lower court's decision to abstain from an action seeking a declaration of the rights and obligations of various insurance companies and an oil company with respect to soil contamination surrounding the oil company's refinery in Hartford, Illinois. The lower court correc...

The Ninth Circuit dismissed individuals' appeal from a judgment for defendants in a case claiming that they violated the National Environmental Policy Act and the California Environmental Quality Act in adopting a National Park Service (NPS) program to restore and protect Santa Cruz Island by, in pa...

The D.C. Circuit held that a consumer group lacks standing to challenge a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) safety standard requiring a warning system for underinflated tires. The group alleged that some of its members will suffer car accidents in the future that otherwise would...

The D.C. Circuit held that a lower court improperly dismissed individuals' National Environmental Policy Act and National Historic Preservation Act claims against the Secretary of the Army and developers in connection with the closure and redevelopment of Fort Ritchie, a former U.S. Army base in wes...

The Fifth Circuit dismissed as moot an environmental group's Clean Water Act (CWA) citizen suit against a city for violating its separate storm sewer system permit. The lower court dismissed the case on grounds that it was barred by res judicata. But because a consent decree in a prior U.S. Environm...

The Fifth Circuit upheld a lower court order giving an aluminum company more time to build a power plant than originally agreed to in a consent decree that resolved alleged Clean Air Act violations at the company's manufacturing plant. After the company failed to meet the decree's deadline for comme...

The Ninth Circuit held that Native American tribes lacked standing to enforce a consent decree entered into by a mining company and the federal government for Resource Conservation and Recovery Act violations at the company's phosphorous plant located on land within a tribal reservation. In addition...