NEPA requires that the Federal Power Commission prepare either an environmental impact statement or a statement of reasons for considering an impact statement unnecessary when it denies an application for a certificate of public convenience and necessity for the interstate transport of natural gas f...
The court affirms a lower court ruling denying injunctive or declaratory relief against a proposed interstate highway route through land protected by §4(f) of the Department of Transportation Act of 1966. Plaintiffs failed to show that the route proposed by the government would not minimize en...
A state Environmental Control Act provision allowing the Illinois Pollution Control Board to impose a fine of up to $10,000 for a violation of the Act is held an illegal delegation of judicial power to an administrative agency. The fact that the statute provides for judicial review does not mitigate...
The district court lacks jurisdiction under either the Fourteenth Amendment or §§1981 and 1983 of the Civil Rights Act in a suit to enjoin the operation of a kraft process pulp and paper mill. An invitation from the mayor and City Commission to build the mill, along with a state license for it and...
The court upholds a Forest Service threshold determination that no environmental impact statement was required for two proposed timber sales that will result in the clearcutting of 670 acres in a nominally roadless area inhabited by an elk herd. The agency's finding that the sales do not represent a...
The court reverses a district court ruling and enjoins performance of two timber sale contracts until the Forest Service files an environmental impact statement. The lower court erred in applying the Administrative Procedure Act standard of review to the agency's threshold determination that the sal...
In separate opinions Judges Bazelon and Leventhal deny a motion by environmental plaintiffs for summary reversal of an AEC order allowing nine nuclear electricity-generating plants to continue operating at present authorized power levels, pending further study of the newly discovered phenomenon of f...
Construction of a proposed freeway segment is enjoined because the final environmental impact statement prepared by the Department of Transportation did not sufficiently evaluate the economic costs and environmental effects of the project and its alternatives. In addition, the EIS failed to consider...
Under the language of §307 of the Clean Air Act, a federal district court lacks jurisdiction to hear claims that EPA, in promulgating an implementation plan pursuant to §110 (c) of the Act, denied plaintiff power company due process, inversely condemned its property, and failed to comply with NEPA...
Clearcutting of federally owned forest lands violates the Organic Act of 1897. The Act's requirement that only dead, mature, or large trees are to be cut cannot be evaded by a determination that trees in a given area are collectively mature. Maturity refers to physiological development, not to the S...