The court rules that the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) authorizes the concurrent enforcement of SMCRA regulations by the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the Secretary of the Interior. Initially, the court rules that it, not the District Court for the District of Columbia, has juris...

Reversing the district court, the Ninth Circuit rules that the Urban Mass Transportation Administration's (UMTA's) decision to categorically exempt the construction and operation of a bus maintenance depot from preparation of an environmental impact statement (EIS) is ripe for judicial review. The c...

The Supreme Court of Alaska upholds Alaska's determination under the Alaska Lands Act that the Beaufort Sea oil and gas lease sale was in the state's best interest, but remands the state's decision that the lease sale was consistent with the Alaska Coastal Management Plan (ACMP). Initially, the cour...

The First Circuit rules that the construction of a privately funded hangar at the Lebanon, New Hampshire, airport is not a federal action subject to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The district court, after preliminarily enjoining construction of a federally funded runway extension and...

The court enjoins the Secretary of the Interior from leasing oil and gas tracts off the California coast pending compliance with the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA). The court concludes that California has demonstrated a strong probability of success on the merits of its claim that the Secretary ...

The court holds that neither §7003 of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) nor §106(a) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) confers liability on non-negligent past off-site generators off-site generators are persons "contributing to" th...

The D.C. Circuit affirms the district court ruling, 11 ELR 20812, that the Forest Service's approval of exploratory mineral drilling in the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness Area, which supports populations of the threatened grizzly bear, did not violate the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) or th...

The court upholds a district court decision, 11 ELR 20877, that Washington's Radioactive Waste Storage and Transportation Act, which prohibits transportation and storage within the state of low-level radioactive wastes produced outside the state, violates the Supremacy and Commerce Clauses of the Co...

The court rules that §307(f) of the Clean Air Act authorizes the award of attorney fees to a prevailing corporate litigant. The court first rules that the language of §307(f) and its legislative history support the award of fees. Petitioner's litigation, 11 ELR 20836, helped to assure the proper i...

The court holds that the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA's) finding of no significant impact (FONSI) pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for a proposed runway extension was reasonable. The court first holds that the FAA did not violate NEPA or the Airport and Airway Impro...