A district court held that the USDA's Rural Utilities Service violated NEPA by failing to prepare an EIS in connection with its involvement in the expansion of a coal-fired generating plant in Holcomb, Kansas. Because the Service provided approvals and financial support to the project, the agenc...

A district court partially dismissed EPA's lawsuit against an energy company for violating the CAA when it allegedly undertook major modifications at a coal-fired power plant in Festus, Missouri. EPA alleged that the company violated the Missouri SIP, the terms of its Title V permit, and the CAA...

A district court issued a permanent injunction barring the state of Vermont from bringing an enforcement action, or taking other action, to compel the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant to shut down after its license expires on March 21, 2012, if it fails to obtain legislative approval to contin...

The Second Circuit vacated a preliminary injunction enjoining residents from the Lago Agrio region of the Ecuadorian Amazon from enforcing a multibillion dollar judgment awarded by an Ecuadorian court against an oil company for environmental pollution. Below, the court ruled that absent a preliminar...

The Federal Circuit, in a case involving an electronics manufacturer's challenge to excise taxes on the use of ozone depleting chemicals (ODCs), reversed a lower court decision ordering the IRS to disclose to the manufacturer its excise tax audits of other companies. After paying the excise tax ...

The Ninth Circuit held that EPA's approval of the 2004 SIP for the San Joaquin Valley nonattainment area for the one-hour ozone NAAQS was arbitrary and capricious. Although it approved the SIP in 2010, EPA's approval was based on data current only as of 2004. By approving the 2004 SIP despite kn...

The Fourth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision dismissing an environmental group's lawsuit challenging the OSM's approval of two amendments to West Virginia's surface coal mining regulations. One amendment repeals the definition of "cumulative impact" in the state's cumulative hydrologic imp...

A district court dismissed an automobile engine manufacturer's lawsuit against EPA seeking to force the Agency to recall model year 2010 heavy-duty diesel engines equipped with liquid, urea-based selective catalyst reduction (SCR) technology for failing to comply with CAA emissions standards. Th...

A district court held that a mining company is liable for discharging arsenic and iron into a nearby creek in violation of its NPDES permit. The company did not deny or admit that it is in violation of its permit. Instead, it argued that the environmental group that filed suit against it lacked ...