Environmental Law › Conflict of Laws

Idaho Enacts Law Declaring The State Has Primacy Over Resident Fish And Wildlife

The State of Idaho enacted a law this spring asserting that the State has “primacy over the management of fish and wildlife.”...more

N.Y. Appellate Division Affirms Zoning Ordinance Banning Hydraulic Fracturing

Sedgwick’s Hydraulic Fracturing Task Force has been watching the ongoing litigation involving hydraulic fracturing (fracking) bans in the towns of Dryden and Middlefield, N.Y. In February 2012 we reported on the Supreme...more

Texas Supreme Court Rules in Southern Crushed Concrete that Texas Clean Air Act Preempts City of Houston Land Use Ordinance

On February 15, 2013, the Texas Supreme Court reversed the rulings of both a trial court and lower appellate court and found in favor of Southern Crushed Concrete in holding that a City of Houston ordinance placing location...more

Federal Court Holds Local Law Preempted By ESA Settlement

The Palila (Loxioides bailleui) is a small bird native to Hawaii that was listed as endangered in 1967. In 1998, the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii, pursuant to a stipulation submitted by the parties, issued...more

Native Village Of Kivalina Files Its Petition For Certiorari - A Five-Year Climate Change Litigation Marathon That Has Yet To...

One day short of five years since the case was originally filed, on February 25, 2013 the plaintiffs in Native Village of Kivalina v. ExxonMobil Corp. attempt once more to get out of the starting blocks, this time with a...more

Virginia AG: Localities Cannot Ban Gas Drilling Through Zoning

Continuing on this blog’s ongoing exploration of the intersection of state and local regulation of shale drilling, several weeks ago Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli issued an advisory opinion finding that state oil...more

Western Pa.'s Take On Carbon Dioxide Liability Claims

Originally published in Law360 on December 17, 2012. Left open by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut, 131 S. Ct. 2527 (2011), was the question of whether state law nuisance...more

Conviction for Possession of Materials to Produce Methamphetamine Reversed

Pacoima police received information that a shoe store there was selling narcotics. The police then put the store under surveillance. On February 2, 2009, police saw Carlos Garcia go into the store and leave with a large white...more

Lead Agency Could Not Bypass CEQA Review By Adopting A Voter-Sponsored Initiative As An Ordinance Instead Of Placing The...

A court of appeal created a split of authority when it ruled that California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) review was necessary when a city approved a project, by adopting as an ordinance, an initiative petition that...more

Impossible and Useless CEQA Review Is Required If City Opts Under Elections Code to Adopt Legislative Project Approvals Proposed...

In a case notable for its unique conception of “meaningful discretion” for purposes of triggering CEQA review, the Fifth District Court of Appeal has created a split in authority that will undoubtedly require Supreme Court...more

U.S. District Court Holds that Federal Clean Air Act Preempts Pennsylvania State Law Common Law Tort Claims

On October 12, 2012, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania issued an opinion and order in Kristie Bell v. Cheswick Generating Station, GenOn Power Midwest, L.P., No. 2:12-cv-929, holding that state...more

Paris International Litigation Bulletin no. 4

This quarterly bulletin provides an overview of newly applicable legal provisions, recent case law and more generally the recent news in international litigation viewed from France....more

The Case For a Broad Pre-Emption Rule for CERCLA Contribution

Although some of the proposed tax plans and budgets being discussed in this election year suggest that the same dollar can be counted and spent multiple times, a growing number of courts have held that CERCLA response costs...more

Last Federal Climate Change Case Dismissed by Ninth Circuit

Last Friday, the Ninth Circuit dismissed the last climate change lawsuit still pending in the federal courts to the best of my knowledge. Native Village of Kivalina v. ExxonMobil Corp. was a lawsuit by a small Alaskan village...more

Ninth Circuit Displaces Kivalina v. ExxonMobil Climate Change Liability Case

In litigation concerning liability for the emission of greenhouse gases, the federal common law of nuisance is displaced by the Clean Air Act. This is not news. It was established by the Supreme Court over a year ago in...more

Litigation Update: California Supreme Court Grants Review Of L.A. Light Rail Case

On August 8th, the California Supreme Court granted review of the Second District Court of Appeal’s decision in Neighbors for Smart Rail v. Exposition Metro Line Construction Authority. As previously blogged in April, the...more

Justice Liu Authors Four Unanimous Opinions by the California Supreme Court

As the summer got started, and his first year on the bench nearly completed, Justice Liu produced four unanimous opinions on wide ranging issues of California law, including arbitration, preemption work product and...more

Public Trust Climate Litigation: On Life Support, But Still Breathing For Now

Last month, Judge Robert Wilkins dismissed the federal public trust climate change law suit, Alec L. v. Jackson. Judge Wilkins ruled on two alternative grounds. First, he held that there was no federal public trust doctrine....more

D.C. Circuit Rebuffs Challenges to EPA’s Climate Change Regulations

In considering the most serious efforts to date to invalidate the federal climate change regulations, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit unanimously upheld several of EPA’s Clean Air Act greenhouse gas (GHG)...more

Florida Water Quality Standards in Flux Due to Challenges at Federal and State Level; UPDATED: Administrative Ruling issued June...

The final standards that set numeric limits/criteria regarding the amount of nutrient pollution allowed in Florida’s lakes, rivers, streams, and springs are being challenged in federal court. These Water Quality Standards for...more

Second Appellate District Approves Use of Projected Future Baseline to Measure Environmental Impacts in L.A. Light Rail Case

On Tuesday, the Second District Court of Appeal issued its decision in Neighbors for Smart Rail v. Exposition Metro Line Construction Authority, ruling that a lead agency’s use of projected future conditions to measure the...more

Court Upholds Use of Future CEQA Baseline, Contravening Sunnyvale and Madera

On April 17, 2012, the Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District upheld the use of a 2030 baseline for an Environmental Impact Report’s (EIR) traffic and air quality analysis in Neighbors for Smart Rail v. Exposition...more

Clean Water Act Orders Subject to Pre-Enforcement Review

Supreme Court decision determines that the Clean Water Act's statutory scheme does not preclude judicial review of EPA's jurisdiction in enforcement cases. In a much-anticipated decision, Sackett v. EPA, 566 U.S. ______...more

Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency

SCOTUS Opinion in Sackett v. EPA

Full text copy of the Supreme Court's unanimous decision in Sackett v. EPA, allowing landowners judicial review when faced with compliance orders from EPA regarding violations of the Clean Water Act....more

Pennsylvania Passes Comprehensive Amendments to Oil and Gas Laws

On February 13, Governor Tom Corbett signed House Bill 1950, amending Title 58 (Oil and Gas) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes. This legislation, most of which will become effective on April 13, imposes a drilling...more