News & Analysis as of

Environmental Litigation State and Local Government

(ACOEL) | American College of Environmental...

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Holds State’s Legal Representation Legally Inadequate For Failure To Argue Environmental Rights...

On July 18, 2024, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decided that environmental groups were entitled to intervene in a case challenging the lawfulness of a greenhouse gas regulation because the state’s attorneys failed to raise...more

Perkins Coie

EIR for State Water Project Contract Amendments Upheld

Perkins Coie on

The Third District Court of Appeal upheld the Department of Water Resources’ EIR concerning State Water Project contract amendments against multiple CEQA challenges related to impact analysis, project descriptions, and...more

Jenner & Block

Federal Preemption as a Vehicle to Supreme Court Review of Climate Change Cases

Jenner & Block on

On February 20, 2024, the City of Chicago sued defendant fossil fuel companies in Illinois state court, asserting state law claims, including nuisance, violations of consumer protection laws, and products liability. Chicago...more

Verrill

Can Building Codes Ban Natural Gas After 9th Circuit Court Declines Rehearing?

Verrill on

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals’ refusal to rehear a pivotal gas appliance regulation decision has thrown a wrench into local efforts to reduce fossil fuel use....more

Steptoe & Johnson PLLC

PFAS/Emerging Contaminants Handbook

PFAS Chemicals: The Bad News, The Worse News, Then Perhaps Some Hope. The story of PFAS chemicals and their effects is disturbing, on many levels. Like so many “helpful” things that turn out to be evil, PFAS chemicals...more

Perkins Coie

EIR for Relicensing of Oroville Dam Adequately Evaluated Environmental Impacts

Perkins Coie on

An environmental impact report need not discuss impacts that are too speculative in nature for proper evaluation or assess economic costs not linked to a physical change in the environment. County of Butte v. Dept. of Water...more

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

Commercial Cannabis Permit Program and Overlay District Statutorily Exempt Under CEQA Guideline Section 15183

On June 13, 2023, the Second Appellate District affirmed the City of Pomona’s use of a statutory exemption for its Commercial Cannabis Overlay Permit Program under California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines...more

Perkins Coie

Navigating the PFAS Regulatory Landscape: Insights for Consumer Brands and Retailers

Perkins Coie on

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), known as “forever chemicals,” have been in use since the 1940s and have been added to a wide variety of products to make them resistant to heat, water, oil, and corrosion. PFAS...more

Zelle  LLP

Big Oil Certiorari Denial May Alter Climate Change Litigation

Zelle LLP on

By Dennis Anderson and Deepa SutherlandTo read this article in PDF format, please click here. On April 24, the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a heavy blow to Big Oil defendants seeking to remove climate change cases to federal...more

(ACOEL) | American College of Environmental...

The Berkeley Ban Is Not the Only Answer

As Seth Jaffe posted last week, the 9th Circuit recently struck down the City of Berkeley’s first-in-the-nation electrification ordinance that prohibited the installation of gas infrastructure in new buildings, finding the...more

Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard,...

Washington County Open-Cut Mining Facility: Arkansas Department of Energy & Environment - Division of Environmental Quality Motion...

As noted in a February 20th post several Requests for Hearings were filed before the Arkansas Pollution Control & Ecology Commission (“Commission”) addressing an application seeking to modify a permit for an open-cut mining...more

Perkins Coie

CEQA Year in Review -- 2022

Perkins Coie on

The courts issued 16 published CEQA decisions in 2022, continuing a trend of fewer published opinions than the pattern established in earlier years. The only California Supreme Court opinion, County of Butte v. Department of...more

Perkins Coie

California River Watch v. Vacaville: “A Better Considered Position” Under RCRA

Perkins Coie on

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, on July 1, 2022, took the extraordinary step of reversing its prior decision in California River Watch v. City of Vacaville. The Ninth Circuit ruled that “transportation” under...more

Perkins Coie

County Did Not Violate Its Duties Under CEQA By Approving a Project at the Density Agreed to in a Stipulated Judgment

Perkins Coie on

The court held that the County of Marin did not abdicate its duties under CEQA when it approved a specific project pursuant to a stipulated judgment. Tiburon Open Space Committee v. County of Marin, 78 Cal. App. 5th 700...more

Foley Hoag LLP - Environmental Law

The Drumbeat of PFAS Litigation Is Getting Louder

On May 25th, Massachusetts filed suit against a number of companies alleged to have manufactured PFAS and/or aqueous film-forming foam.  Massachusetts joins a number of other states which have already brought similar...more

Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard,...

NPDES Permitting/Clean Water Act: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Motion to Dismiss Arkansas Department of Energy &...

As noted in an April 27th blog post, the Arkansas Department of Energy & Environment – Division of Environmental Quality (“DEQ”) filed a Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief (“Complaint”) in the United States...more

Perkins Coie

Government Moves to Dismiss Case Challenging New York Bight Wind Energy Area Designations

Perkins Coie on

New York Bight Lease Sale Under Attack - A New Jersey-based nonprofit organization, Save Long Beach Island, and its president sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in January 2022. They are asserting...more

Foley Hoag LLP - Environmental Law

State Law Climate Damage Cases (Still) Belong in State Court

In the first appellate decision to decide the issue since the Supreme Court decision in BP P.L.C. v. Mayor & City Council of Baltimore, the 10th Circuit ruled this week that climate damage claims brought by several Colorado...more

Perkins Coie

Failure to Timely Name and Serve Real Parties In Interest Does Not Warrant Dismissal Of An Entire CEQA Action if The Unnamed...

Perkins Coie on

In the first reported interpretation of a 2021 amendment to CEQA’s statute of limitations provisions, the First District Court of Appeal addressed “whether an action against a lead agency must be dismissed–despite being filed...more

Perkins Coie

All Projects—Including Non-Occupancy Structures—Require Climate Action Plan Consistency Analysis to Benefit from Streamlined GHG...

Perkins Coie on

The City of San Diego’s approval of underground utility lines was incomplete because its Climate Action Plan checklist improperly allowed certain non-occupancy projects to avoid greenhouse gas emission (GHG) consistency...more

Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard,...

Asbestos Enforcement: Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment - Division of Environmental Quality and Benton County...

The Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment - Division of Environmental Quality (“DEQ”) and Red Line Contractors, LLC, (“Redline”) entered into a Consent Administrative Order (“CAO”) addressing alleged violations of...more

Foley Hoag LLP - Energy & Climate Counsel

Local Communities and Environmental Groups Bring Challenge to the New York State Office of Renewable Energy Siting’s Regulations...

On June 29, 2021, a cohort of New York local governments (including many where large-scale solar projects are currently proposed), community organizations, and avian interest groups filed a lawsuit in the New York State...more

Foley Hoag LLP - Environmental Law

Massachusetts Claims Against ExxonMobil Survive — Wave of the Future or Litigation Sideshow?

This week, Judge Karen Green denied Exxon Mobil’s motion to dismiss claims brought by Massachusetts under its Consumer Protection Act. The complaint alleges that Exxon Mobil both mislead Massachusetts investors in its...more

Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard,...

Solid and Hazardous Waste/Recycling Administrative/Judicial Developments (2020-2021): May 20th Arkansas Environmental Federation...

I undertook an Arkansas Environmental Federation webinar held by the organization’s Land and Sustainability Committee on May 20th titled: Solid and Hazardous Waste/Recycling Administrative/Judicial Developments: 2020-2021...more

Latham & Watkins LLP

CEQA Case Report: 2020 Year in Review

Latham & Watkins LLP on

CEQA Case Report: Understanding the Judicial Landscape for Development - Public agencies prevailed in 68% of CEQA cases analyzed. Latham & Watkins is pleased to present its fourth annual CEQA Case Report. Throughout...more

32 Results
 / 
View per page
Page: of 2

"My best business intelligence, in one easy email…"

Your first step to building a free, personalized, morning email brief covering pertinent authors and topics on JD Supra:
*By using the service, you signify your acceptance of JD Supra's Privacy Policy.
- hide
- hide