On April 9, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in a unanimous opinion, rejected the challenges to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (Corps) decision to issue a Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 404 permit to the...more
On February 27, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana granted a motion for a preliminary injunction filed by a group of environmental plaintiffs seeking to halt the construction of an oil pipeline in...more
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 102(c) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, as amended, the Office of the Secretary, Department of Homeland Security, in her “sole discretion” has...more
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Office of Management and Budget(Administration) has posted the Fall 2017 Agency Statements of Regulatory Priorities, and what follows is a selection of future environmental...more
12/21/2017
/ Bureau of Land Management ,
Clean Water Act ,
Department of Defense (DOD) ,
Department of the Interior ,
Department of Transportation (DOT) ,
Endangered Species Act (ESA) ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
NEPA ,
NPRM ,
RCRA ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
US Army Corps of Engineers ,
Waters of the United States
On October 11, the U.S. States District Court for the District of Columbia issued its latest ruling on the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAP). The case is Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe v. US Army Corps of...more
On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, in the case of Sierra Club, at al., v. FERC, rejected most of the arguments made against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) decision to approve the...more
On August 15, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decided the case of Sierra Club v. U.S. Department of Energy. The Sierra Club challenged the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) grant of a license to export...more
On August 9, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in an unpublished opinion, decided the case of Friends of Lydia Ann Channel v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, vacating the preliminary injunction issued by the U.S....more
On March 21, 2017, the United States Supreme Court decided the case of National Labor Relations Board v. SW General, Inc. This case concerns the operation and application of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 (FVRA). ...more
6/21/2017
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Appeals ,
BNSF Railway Co v Tyrrell ,
CERCLA ,
Civil Investigation Demand ,
Disgorgement ,
Endangered Species Act (ESA) ,
Environmental Litigation ,
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ,
Federal Employers Liability Act ,
NEPA ,
NLRB ,
NLRB v SW General ,
Oil & Gas ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
US Army Corps of Engineers
In an interesting decision by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on May 22, the District Court again held that metro-300x200a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) must be provided by the...more
Many large and complicated construction projects require the issuance of several differed permits having different requirements. Courts strive to interpret their requirements in a rational and reasonable manner.
On May 23,...more
On May 4, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a “Deepwater Horizon” ruling in Center for Biological Diversity v. Zinke. The Center for Biological Diversity’s (Center) claims concerns the Department of...more
In Government of the Province of Manitoba v. Zinke, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit reversed the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and held that the State of North Dakota could begin designing a...more
On February 13, a sharply divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit , by a vote of 8 to 6, rejected a petition seeking an en banc rehearing of the court’s initial decision in the case of Markel Interests, LLC, et...more
On December 13, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit decided the case of Catawba Riverkeeper Foundation, et al., v. North Carolina Department of Transportation, et al. The Fourth Circuit concluded that, “[b]ecause...more
Below is a snapshot of the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act water-300x200(S. 612) passed late last week by the Congress. The President has indicated that he will sign the bill.
Title I of the Act is...more
On December 6, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in the case of Japanese Village, LLC v. Federal Transit Administration, et al., affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgement to the government...more
On November 17, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit decided the case of Sherwood, et al. v. Tennessee Valley Authority. The Court of Appeals reversed the lower court’s ruling that a complaint filed by many...more
“Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.”
Many important environmental and administrative law decisions were reported by the federal and state courts over the past six months. The courts are dealing with very...more
10/17/2016
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Administrative Procedure Act ,
Air Pollution ,
Appeals ,
Appointments Clause ,
Boilers ,
CERCLA ,
Chevron Deference ,
Clean Air Act ,
Clean Water Act ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Department of Energy (DOE) ,
Department of the Interior ,
Department of Transportation (DOT) ,
Discharge of Pollutants ,
Endangered Species Act (ESA) ,
Environmental Impact Report (EIR) ,
Environmental Litigation ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal v State Law Application ,
Federal Vacancies Reform Act ,
FERC ,
Hawkes Co v United States Army Corps of Engineers ,
Incidental Take Permits ,
Lockheed Martin ,
Navarro v Encino Motorcars ,
NEPA ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
NLRB v SW General ,
Nuclear Regulatory Commission ,
Railways ,
Renewable Energy ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
US Fish and Wildlife Service ,
Waters of the United States
On September 13, the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota granted a Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order in the matter of Paradigm Energy Partners, LLC v. Fox, et al., prohibiting the defendants from...more
On September 9, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia denied a motion for a Preliminary Injunction against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to stop the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, a pipeline...more
In Center for Biological Diversity, et al., v. Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) did not violate the Endangered Species Act (ESA) when its...more
The state and federal appellate courts have issued a surprising number of significant rulings in a variety of environmental and administrative law controversies in late July and early August:
- On August 8, the U.S....more
July 15 was a busy day at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, as five important decisions werethree issued. What was remarkable and worth noting is that Judge Judith Rogers, a member of the court...more
On July 5, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, in Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility v. Hopper, Acting Director of the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, reviewed the District Court’s dismissal...more