The Supreme Court of Idaho rejects a claim of a public right to use respondent's lakefront beach for recreational purposes. The court first denies the applicability of the prescriptive easement theory, ruling that the general public cannot acquire prescriptive rights in private property because such...

Granting defendants' motion for summary judgment, the court holds that agencies of the federal government which purchase electricity from utility companies within the State of Maryland must pay an exaction imposed by state law and termed an "environmental surcharge." The environmental surcharge, as ...

The court approves a stipulation of dismissal of a suit challenging defendants' compliance with the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act in connection with a marijuana eradication program conducted in Mexico. The stipulation provides that defendants will perform all environmental an...

In 1964, the Secretary of the Interior asserted that certain oil shale placer mining claims held by appellees were invalid because they did not contain valuable minerals when the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920, 30 U.S.C. §181, ELR STAT. & REG. 41410, was enacted, nor do valuable minerals now exist...

The court remands to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission two licensing proceedings in which the Commission granted amendments to the operating licenses for the Vermont Yankee and Prairie Island nuclear power plants permitting increases in the capacity of the plants' spent fuel storage pools. The Atomi...

The Fourth Circuit remands to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) effluent limitations promulgated under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act regarding total suspended solids, recycling provisions, other discharge limitations, and variance procedures for crushed stone, construction sand, an...

The Tenth Circuit overrules the dismissal of an enforcement suit brought against a leachate gold mining operation, holding that not all mining activities are exempt from regulation as point sources of pollution under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA). The district court erred in assumi...

Section 125 of the Clean Air Act, under which major air pollution sources can be required to use local coal in order to minimize local economic disruption, is not unconstitutional under either the Commerce Clause or the Fifth Amendment. Although this provision treats differently persons within and w...

In 1975, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA), a bistate organization created pursuant to the Tahoe Regional Planning Compact, enacted a transportation plan calling for the construction of certain roadways and the widening and improvement of others in the city of Lake Tahoe and the surrounding ...

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirms a district court decision vacating an injunction against completion of improvements to State Route 73 in New York. After the trial court initially found the administrative record inadequate to support respondent federal and state highway agencies' claim th...