The Sixth Circuit held that a district court improperly failed to vacate or modify an injunction that prevented the Federal Highway Administration (FHwA) from revisiting its decision regarding a highway extension. An environmental group sued to enjoin construction, stating that the project required ...

The D.C. Circuit held that FERC complied with NEPA in approving a company's application for a certificate of public convenience and necessity to construct a pipeline extension through Southwest Virginia and North Carolina. FERC's process for ventilating and analyzing potential environmental impacts ...

A California appellate court upheld the dismissal of a landowner's inverse condemnation claim against California in which it sought to avoid the effect of an irrevocable offer to dedicate land for public use. The dedication was made by a prior owner of the land in 1983 as a condition of a permit to ...

The Ninth Circuit reversed a lower court decision to find a possible equal protection violation when a state water quality control board's overzealous regulation of a ski resort's water discharges may have been motivated by personal animus, but affirmed the decision on all remaining claims. When the...

The Third Circuit reversed a lower court decision and granted declaratory judgment for a waste management company stating that the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act does not prohibit the building of a landfill because the company began construction prior to the effective date of the...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part a lower court decision concerning challenges to a plan to redirect water from the Sacramento River Basin back to the Trinity River in order to revive its chinook salmon, coho salmon, and steelhead trout populations. Contrary to the lower court'...

The Eighth Circuit upheld the dismissal of a landowner's lawsuit challenging the USDA's financing of a sewage treatment plant for lack of standing. The landowner argued that in the event of a 100-year flood, the treatment plant increases the risk of flooding on his land. The landowner, however, fail...

The Seventh Circuit held that an insurer has no duty to defend or indemnify a local housing authority with respect to an underlying class action lawsuit in which approximately 10,000 current or former residents claimed that they had been exposed to and harmed by environmental contaminants while livi...

The D.C. Circuit granted several municipalities' petition to review an FAA order allowing Chicago to impose a $4.50 passenger facility fee to fund an EIS being prepared in connection with the modernization of O'Hare International Airport. Under the Federal Aviation Act of 1958, the FAA must find, am...

The First Circuit dismissed for lack of jurisdiction Rhode Island's interlocutory appeal of an EPA Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) decision denying the state's motion to intervene in an NPDES permit proceeding. As a matter of first impression in the circuit, the court held that the collateral orde...