The court holds that a challenge to a federal highway project in Hawaii was properly dismissed for mootness and that Congress did not violate the Spending Clause, the Fifth Amendment, or the doctrine of separation of powers in exempting the H-3 project from the requirements of §4(f) of the Departme...

The court holds that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC's) refusal of a request to assess the need for conditions to protect wildlife in two hydroelectric interim licenses was an abuse of discretion under the Federal Power Act (FPA). Petitioner, a trust formed as part of a litigation s...

The court holds that a suit by four environmental groups and the government of Ontario, alleging that Detroit's nearly completed municipal waste incinerator will violate the Michigan Environmental Protection Act (MEPA), was improperly removed to federal court. The Michigan Department of Natural Reso...

The court holds that current owners of a site contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) who received their interest in the property through a stock transfer are entitled to assert the innocent landowner defense in §§101(35) and 107(a) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensat...

The court holds that the former owner of a chrome plating facility that allegedly discharged hexavalent chromium into an underground aquifer relinquished his right to judicial review on the merits of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) order, pursuant to §3013 of the Resource Conservation...

The court approves a consent decree in a Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) citizen suit that provides funding to a private organization for a wetlands mitigation project. The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) FWPCA civil penalty policy specifically authorizes the use of environment...

The court holds that plaintiffs in a citizen suit failed to state a claim against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) because EPA does not have a non-discretionary duty to investigate citizen complaints of violations under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability A...

The court holds that Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) §309(d)'s list of factors to be considered in assessing civil penalties, added by the 1987 FWPCA amendments, may be applied in assessing penalties for violations before 1987, and the court assesses the maximum penalty of $10,000 each ...

The court holds that a government-approved cleanup program is not a prerequisite to a purchaser's private cost recovery action under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) against former owners and operators of a hazardous waste site, and the purchaser may...

The court holds that the sudden and accidental exception to the pollution exclusion clause of a comprehensive general liability insurance policy contains a temporal aspect meaning only a short time rather than incorporating the concept of an unexpected and unintended event from the viewpoint of the ...