The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals rules that the Atomic Energy Commission violated its own regulations in issuing a construction permit for the Bailly nuclear power plant on the southern shore of Lake Michigan. The city line of Portage, Indiana, a city which will have more than 25,000 residents i...

The court dismisses, for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, a citizen suit brought under §304 of the Clean Air Act to enjoin the discharge of silicon tetrachloride from a chemical facility. The primary and secondary national ambient air quality standards do not constitute em...

By defining "navigable waters" in the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972 to mean "waters of the United States," Congress intended to assert federal jurisdiction over the nation's waters to the maximum extent possible under the Commerce Clause. The Army Corps of Engineers' definit...

The Supreme Court reverses a ruling by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that the environmentalist plaintiffs in the litigation surrounding construction of the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline are entitled to an award of attorney fees against the oil company consortium that intervened as a defendant. The c...

The court dismisses, for lack of jurisdiction, a suit challenging the validity of EPA's guidelines and standards for the petroleum refining point source category promulgated pursuant to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972. Plaintiffs' motion for additional discovery is denied ...

A special board's denial of plaintiffs' application for a permit to fill four acres of salt marsh land constituted a valid exercise of the police power proscribing future activities harmful to the public and therefore does not require compensation under the eminent domain clause. The wetlands in que...

The Court enjoins all federal participation in the planning, funding or construction of a proposed runway at the principal airport serving metropolitan Detroit until an environmental impact statement which meets the requirements of NEPA is prepared. The present Federal Aviation Administration EIS fo...

The court refuses to dismiss an indictment against a corporation for causing water pollution in violation of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972. Under §309 of the statute, the EPA Administrator is not required to proceed first to effect a correction of a statutory violation ...

The final environmental impact statement for a proposed six-mile interstate highway segment in New Hampshire and Vermont fails to comply with the requirements of NEPA. The EIS is inadequate because it does not assess the incidental environmental effects that construction of this segment will have on...

The balance of prospective irreparable damages to plaintiffs and defendants does not favor issuance of an injunction pending appeal in a suit challenging the adequacy of a Forest Service-prepared NEPA impact statement on the granting of an easement across national forest land for construction of a l...