About two months ago, a New York Appeals Court reversed a lower court’s dismissal of the claims brought by two public service organizations in the matter of Clean Air Coalition of Western New York v. New York State Public...more
Several organizations filed a Petition for Review (“Petition”) in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit challenging the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA”) Safe Drinking...more
Earlier this week, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals stayed construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. The Court did so with a two-sentence order stating that an opinion would follow. The order was issued hours after oral...more
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) Environmental Appeals Board (“EAB”) addressed in a September 30th Opinion a challenge to a Clean Water Act National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (“NPDES”)...more
The United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit (“Court”) addressed in a May 29th decision a challenge to a Clean Air Act (“Act”) Title V Permit issued to an ExxonMobil Baytown, Texas Olefin plant (“Plant”). See...more
The Sierra Club and National Parks Conservation Association (collectively “Sierra Club”) filed a Petition for Review (“Petition”) on November 25, 2019 in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit challenging...more
The Sierra Club and National Parks Conservation Association (collectively “Sierra Club”) filed a Petition for Review (“Petition”) challenging the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) approval of revisions to...more
Major sources of air pollution must obtain a Clean Air Act Title V permit under their state’s EPA- approved implementation plan. Permits, of course, can be challenged. By petition to the EPA Administrator, the Sierra Club...more
The District of Columbia United States Court of Appeals (“Court”) addressed in a June 14th opinion a title V Clean Air Act judicial review issue. See Sierra Club v. Environmental Protection Agency, 2019 WL 2479448. The...more
The court of appeal held that the plaintiff’s challenge to the City of Rohnert Park’s reapproval of a Wal-Mart grocery store was barred by the doctrine of res judicata because a prior proceeding had raised the same issues. ...more
As Storm Looms, 4th Circuit Reverses Ruling Against Dominion on Coal Ash Pollution at Chesapeake Site - "Water pollution from a coal ash landfill and settling ponds at a closed power plant in Chesapeake is not a violation of...more
The United States has one of the most extensive natural gas pipeline networks in the world. This vast network enables the ongoing switch away from coal-fired generation and toward a renewables and natural gas-based electric...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia last week vacated and remanded a 2016 Order by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that had authorized construction and operation of the Southeast Market Pipelines...more
Last week, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued an opinion in Sierra Club v. FERC, No. 16-1329 (D.C. Cir. Aug. 22, 2017), concluding that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission...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
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit recently rejected portions of an EPA rule designed to distinguish true recycling from “sham recycling” under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act...more
On June 16, 2017 – without seeking either rehearing in the First District Court of Appeal or review by the Supreme Court – losing appellants Sierra Club and Center for Biological Diversity filed a letter asking the Supreme...more
Since 2012, the major opponent of new large-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) export projects has been the Sierra Club. The Sierra Club has adopted a two-pronged approach in its opposition to LNG exports projects, opposing...more
Ever since EPA began considering how BACT analysis would be applied to greenhouse gas emissions, there has been concern that EPA would use its BACT authority to “redefine the source” – with the particular concern that BACT...more
Following a Wyoming federal court’s order temporarily halting the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) final rule regulating hydraulic fracturing on public lands, Sierra Club and several other environmental groups requested the...more
On May 27, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit provided some additional guidance as to what constitutes agency action for purposes of triggering the consultation requirement under the Endangered Species Act...more
On October 29, 2014 the California Court of Appeal affirmed a trial court’s judgment enforcing a mitigation measure adopted by a county in its program environmental impact report (PEIR). As of the date of this blog post,...more
In a published decision, the California Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District rejected the California Coastal Commission’s (“Commission”) finding that there is no rational nexus or rough proportionality between...more
The general rule under the Clean Air Act is that any: person may bring suit in district court against the EPA Administrator for an alleged failure to perform a nondiscretionary act or duty, and the district court has...more
In Sierra Club v. County of Fresno, a decision that will likely impact projects across California, the Court of Appeal for the Fifth Appellate District issued its second major California Environmental Quality Act ("CEQA")...more