On June 1, 2015, in a case about the interplay between the right of individual property owners to seek redress for the diminution in value of their properties caused by light, noise, and airborne chemical particulates originating from the operation of adjacent regulated energy production facilities and the right of…
On June 4, 2015, U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal issued a long ruling, resolving a number of partial summary judgement motions filed in the case of Exxon Mobil Corporation v. United States. Exxon’s predecessors owned and operated large refineries located in Baytown, Texas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana (which are being…
On June 3, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued another major Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) decision, albeit in an unpublished opinion. The case is Solvay USA v. EPA. In 2011, EPA issued rules to classify non-hazardous secondary materials under RCRA as “solid waste”…
On June 2, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit decided the case of Adkisson v. Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc.. The Court of Appeals reversed the federal district court’s dismissal of lawsuits premised on the argument that Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc. was entitled to derivative governmental immunity based…
In an important decision released on May 29, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit rejected the Sierra Club and other environmental organizations’ most recent objections to the permitting and construction of TransCanada’s Gulf Coast pipeline. The case is Sierra Club, et al. v Bostick. The U.S.…
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) denied the 2012 application of the Trinity Lutheran Church to participate in a state program that makes state solid waste management funds available to qualifying organizations to purchase recycled tires to resurface playgrounds. This use of recycled tires is described as a “beneficial…
The following important U.S. District Court decisions are being appealed to the Fifth and Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals: Louisiana District Court says no go to suit against 88 oil and gas companies. On May 20, 2015, another important environmental appeal was filed with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.…
On May 12, 2015, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia partially granted a request for a preliminary injunction against the enforcement on new Interior Department rules which are intended, under the Department’s reading of the Lacey Act, 18 U.S.C. Section 42, to prohibit the interstate transportation of…
On April 29, 2015, the United States Supreme Court issued another unanimous ruling holding that the right to judicial review is a fundamental tenet of administrative law. The case is Mach Mining, LLC, v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and involves the right to challenge the conciliation proceedings of the EEOC…
On May 15, 2015, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit again ruled that the National Association of Home Builders lacked representational standing to challenge a “preliminary, internal determination” made by EPA and the US Army Corps of Engineers in 2008 that two stretches of the Santa…