Two transactions in which the Forest Service exchanged government land in and near Yellowstone National Park for land patented to a private company, which then conveyed its acquisition to a developer for construction of a recreational development, are reviewable by the court ans fall under the requi...

The court denies defendants' motion to transfer to Montana an action seeking an injunction against the planned development of coal mining in parts of the Northern Great Plains until a comprehensive environmental impact statement is filed. The issues central to the case are not such that they require...

The U.S. Forest Service did not abuse its discretion in awarding a timber sale contract to the high bidder, who had defaulted on similar contracts in the past and thereby caused the permanent loss by bug infestation of trees totaling 200 million board-feet of lumber. Proof that the agency exercised ...

A summary judgment against plaintiffs seeking to compel disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act of the results of radiation level surveys by EPA in private and public structures built on uranium tailings is reversed. The court rules that EPA has not sustained its burden of establishing a rig...

The state supreme court finds it unnecessary to rule on whether a Western North Carolina Regional Air Pollution Agency regulation is invalid as an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power since the warrant charging a criminal violation of the regulation fails to specify facts sufficient to i...

The court dismisses for lack of jurisdiction an action seeking declaratory and injunctive relief against the operation of 20 nuclear power plants with allegedly ineffective emergency core cooling systems as a breach of AEC's obligation under the Atomic Energy Act to protect the public health and saf...

Sections 304(a) and 307 of the Clean Air Act allow the court to award costs and attorney fees to environmental plaintiffs in a suit against EPA which resulted in reversal of the agency's approval of portions of two state implementation plans. Attorney fees can be awarded against a federal agency onl...

A district court's dismissal of a suit to enjoin further dam construction on the lower Snake River is remanded for a determination of whether the relief sought would actually work an intolerable burden on governmental functions, and thus outweigh any alleged private harm. If not, plaintiffs' allegat...

Private pleasure boat owners may not recover damages for loss of navigational rights in the Santa Barbara Channel due to the 1969 oil spill, although they can recover for physical injury to their boats in either a negligence or a nuisance action. The navigational rights claim sounds in maritime tort...

Construction of the reef runway extension at the Honolulu International Airport may proceed since the requirements of NEPA and the Airport and Airways Development Act of 1970 (AADA) have been met. The substantive content of the NEPA impact statement is adequate in that it does not evidence arbitrary...