The Fifth Circuit held that parties to the class action settlement agreement concerning economic and property damages stemming from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill may seek appellate review of district court decisions on individual claims. The district court had approved final rules governing discre...

A district court held that trade associations and nonprofit corporations representing members of the timber industry lack standing to challenge the Forest Service's 2012 planning rule governing development of individual land and resource management plans for the 155 national forests and 20 national ...

The Ninth Circuit upheld a lower court's dismissal of a lawsuit brought under the Alien Tort Statute and California tort law against a petroleum company alleging it should be held liable for war crimes committed by members of the Colombian National Army’s 18th Brigade. The action was brought by th...

The Ninth Circuit dismissed an oil company's Declaratory Judgment Act lawsuit against several environmental groups, seeking a declaration that the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement’s approval of two oil spill response plans under OPA for Alaska’s Beaufort and Chukchi Seas did not vi...

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...

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...

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 ...

A California court dismissed environmental groups' lawsuit against the California Department of Conservation, Division Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) for failing to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act in issuing permits for oil and gas wells that involve hydraulic fractur...

The D.C. Circuit dismissed Arizona's objection to a consent decree that established a timeline for EPA to approve a SIP, or promulgate a federal implementation plan (FIP), that would meet the requirements of the Regional Haze Rule. A lower court held that it lacked jurisdiction to hear the objection...