The court holds that the trustee in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy may abandon, pursuant to 11 U.S.C. §554(a), drums containing hazardous waste where the estate does not have sufficient assets to comply with state environmental laws. The court initially rules that the bankruptcy court cannot authorize the ...
The court holds that an Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) §3008 action ordering compliance with federal and state environmental laws is exempt from the automatic stay provision of the Bankruptcy Reform Act and should not be stayed under §105 of...
The court holds that the New York Department of Environmental Conservation's (DEC's) failure to designate property as freshwater wetlands on a tentative map does not exempt the property from regulation under the state Freshwater Wetlands Act, and tentative designation does not constitute a taking. T...
The en banc court divides evenly on whether petitioners have standing to challenge the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) new formulas for calculating automobile fuel efficiency. The court therefore reinstates the original panel decision, which affirmed in part and reversed in part EPA's rule...
The court holds that the issuance of oil and gas leases allowing some surface disturbance in a potential wilderness area must be preceded by preparation of an environmental impact statement (EIS) under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), that the no-action alternative must be considered ev...
The court holds that the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) withdrawal of its proposed relisting of six hazardous smelting wastes under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) was arbitrary and capricious. A 1980 RCRA amendment known as the Bevill Amendment required EPA to exclude s...
The court holds that the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by selling oil and gas leases on national forest land in Montana without preparing an environmental impact statement (EIS), and that the sale of the leases without a compre...
The court rules that the Army Corps of Engineers in part properly issued a permit under §10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act, but that on the record the court cannot conclude that the Corps adequately evaluated the economics of and alternatives to the facility to be permitted. Initially, the court hol...
The court holds that the imposition of a $10,000 civil penalty against one codefendant found in violation of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) is reasonable taking into account the factors enumerated in the Environmental Protection ...
The court holds that the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Federal Highway Administration violated §4(f) of the DOT Act by failing to determine that significant indirect impacts on historic sites located near a proposed interstate highway connector in Mobile, Alabama, constitute a construc...