The court holds that a state statute forbidding recovery of costs associated with construction of an electric power plant before the plant begins production bars recovery of investment in the abandoned Pilgrim 2 nuclear plant. The court rejects the utility's contentions that the phrase "construction...

The court holds that plaintiffs' public lands grazing permits were properly revoked by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) based on a finding that plaintiffs had committed willful and repeated trespasses on public lands. The court begins by setting out the standard for termination of grazing permits...

The court holds that a citizen suit under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) to compel the Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator to exercise his imminent hazard enforcement authority with respect to two dump sites in Pennsylvania is barred because RCRA §7003(a) enfor...

The court rules that defendants, who reclaim anthracite silt from old underground mine processing sites, are surface miners under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) and must pay SMCRA reclamation fees. The expert testimony offered at trial supports the trial court's finding that ...

The court holds that debtors who have filed for bankruptcy nonetheless are liable to the United States for post-filing interest on delinquent Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act reclamation fees. The court first rules that the "fees" are in fact taxes since they are involuntary exactions furt...

The court rules that defendant violated a non-discretionary duty in failing to act on plaintiffs' Clean Air Act §126 petitions, which concern interstate air pollution from the midwest, within 60 days and failed to demonstrate that he should be allowed extra time. Defendant concedes that he has viol...

The court rules that the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying appellant citizens groups' claim of a right of intervention under Rule 24(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) in a government hazardous waste cleanup action brought under the imminent hazard provisions of t...

The court rules that an organization with an interest in water pollution control lacks standing to bring a citizen enforcement action under §505 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) absent allegations that the group or some of its members were in fact injured as a result of the defend...

The court rules that a corporation involved in ongoing hazardous substance disposal over a period of years in various ways, including through the disposal activities of one of its officers, and through its leasehold interest in the land on which disposal occurred, and later its sublease to a related...

The court holds that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources and two of its officials are immune under the Eleventh Amendment from a due process claim alleging failure to enforce state hazardous waste laws, and that a cause of action under the Federal Civil Rights Act against the two ...