63 results for 'cat:"Administrative Law" AND cat:"Environment"'.
J. Oldham grants a petition for review of a decision by the Department of Energy to tighten regulations for dishwashers and washing machines. It is unclear the department has authority to regulate water use in those appliances. Furthermore, its new rule also fails to adequately consider appliance performance and substitution effects, as well as evidence that conservation standards are actually resulting in more energy and water use. The department must consider remedies short of repeal of existing rules.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Oldham , Filed On: January 8, 2024, Case #: 22-60146 , Categories: administrative Law, Energy, environment
J. Brodie grants summary judgment to the government agency tasked with preserving Fire Island’s seashore lands on claims that it violated a local grocery store operator’s rights under the Administrative Procedures Act. The store’s owner is contesting the agency’s decision to issue him a weekend-only driving permit to allow him to transport provisions through protected seashore lands when the local ferry is out of service due to inclement weather during the winter months. The court finds the agency’s decision, which was based on several factors including the existence of several other grocery stores on the island that help service the island’s inhabitants and workers during the week, was not arbitrary, illegal or capricious.
Court: USDC Eastern District of New York, Judge: Brodie, Filed On: January 3, 2024, Case #: 2:20cv6330, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: administrative Law, environment
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J. Gill finds the circuit court properly affirmed the administrative law judge's decision reversing the natural resources department's issuance of a wetland individual permit to the manufacturing company related to the construction of a new golf course that would require discharging dredged or fill material into more than three acres of wetlands. The relevant Wisconsin statutes require the department to consider the entire "proposed project" beyond just the effects on the specific impacted wetlands, which necessarily includes secondary impacts on wetland functional values such as the value of bird habitats and "scenic beauty," water quality and other net environmental impacts. There is also substantial evidence that the department did not have sufficient information to determine the overall adverse impacts of the project at the time it issued the permit, and it is also concluded that the administrative law judge did not require the department to make quantitative findings about secondary impacts of the project. Affirmed.
Court: Wisconsin Court of Appeals, Judge: Gill, Filed On: December 5, 2023, Case #: 2021AP001187, Categories: administrative Law, environment
J. Sullivan finds for the Army Corps of Engineers on the state of Alabama’s challenge to the corps' updated master water control manual, which governs management of certain dams and reservoirs in the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa River Basin. The state fails to show the manual violates the Clean Water Act, the Administrative Procedure Act or the National Environmental Protection Act.
Court: USDC District of Columbia, Judge: Sullivan, Filed On: November 9, 2023, Case #: 1:15cv696, NOS: Administrative Procedure Act/Review or Appeal of Agency Decision - Other Suits, Categories: administrative Law, environment, Water
[Modified.] [Consolidated.] J. Tucher makes a couple of changes to footnotes and denies a petition for rehearing with no change in judgment. The trial court properly rejected Environmental Quality Act challenges to the long-range development plan for the University of California, San Francisco campus. The plan's environmental impact report adequately considered alternative development plans and the actions needed to mitigate wind impacts. The report should have considered public transit impacts, but the omission was not prejudicial because the report provides enough information to inform the public about the project's likely adverse impacts. The school was not required to analyze visual impacts because the development is an infill site, nor was it required to adopt mitigation measures for historical buildings that will be repurposed. Affirmed.
Court: California Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Tucher, Filed On: October 20, 2023, Case #: A166091, Categories: administrative Law, Construction, environment
J. Wesley finds that the district court properly found for federal agencies in claims challenging quotas designed to protect the summer flounder population from overfishing. The state sought a higher quota percentage because fish had migrated northward, but amendments to the rules of calculation accounted for such developments. Affirmed.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Wesley, Filed On: October 13, 2023, Case #: 22-1189, Categories: administrative Law, Commerce, environment
[Amended.] J. Kelly finds for the Secretary of Commerce on commercial fishermen and a trade association's challenge to the allocation of red grouper fishing privileges in the Gulf of Mexico. Contrary to their claims, the department did not use incorrect data or apply the data arbitrarily, while it did consider suitable alternatives.
Court: USDC District of Columbia, Judge: Kelly, Filed On: September 21, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv1260, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: administrative Law, Commerce, environment
[Consolidated.] J. Tucher holds that the trial court properly rejected Environmental Quality Act challenges to the long-range development plan for the University of California, San Francisco campus. The plan's environmental impact report adequately considered alternative development plans and the actions needed to mitigate wind impacts. The report should have considered public transit impacts, but the omission was not prejudicial because the report provides enough information to inform the public about the project's likely adverse impacts. The school was not required to analyze visual impacts because the development is an infill site, nor was it required to adopt mitigation measures for historical buildings that will be repurposed. Affirmed.
Court: California Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Tucher, Filed On: September 20, 2023, Case #: A166091, Categories: administrative Law, Construction, environment
J. Lawrence-Berrey finds that the lower court properly in part ruled in favor of a series of local governments and districts who sued the Department of Ecology over changes to the regulation of nitrogen discharges. The local entities claim that the department violated the rulemaking process when it adopted the new rules based on two documents produced by the department, and the lower court found in their favor. At the heart of the dispute is the question of whether three key "rules" that were changed are even rules at all under the Administrative Procedure Act. While two of the challenged rules cannot be considered as such, the third one does meet the definition under the APA. This means that certain new permit-related requirements are unlawful, and if the department would like to act on them further, they must go through the proper rulemaking procedures. Affirmed in part.
Court: Washington Court Of Appeals, Judge: Lawrence-Berrey, Filed On: September 14, 2023, Case #: 39494-8-III, Categories: administrative Law, environment, Agency
J. Moore grants the application for rehearing and substitutes the current opinion, holding that the lower court improperly entered judgment for the Alabama Department of Environmental Management officials in this declaratory judgment action concerning the validity of certain grievance procedures, which were contained in a memorandum. The lower court erred in determining that the plaintiff landowners "lacked standing to challenge the grievance procedures." Additionally, the department failed to follow proper rulemaking procedures. Reversed.
Court: Alabama Court of Civil Appeals, Judge: Moore, Filed On: September 8, 2023, Case #: 2200821, Categories: administrative Law, environment
J. Jackson finds for three environmental groups seeking to compel Fish and Wildlife Services to designate critical habitat for the endangered rusty patched bumble bee. The groups have sufficiently shown an injury-in-fact, and that the service's designation may create a risk of injury to the bee and they have an interest in seeing the bee, while the service failed to explain a reasoned basis for failing to designate a critical habitat for the bee.
Court: USDC District of Columbia, Judge: Jackson, Filed On: August 11, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv770, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: administrative Law, environment
J. Booth reverses the lower court’s decision to vacate and remand allegations of environmental regulation violations to the Maryland Department of the Environment regarding its issuance of water and ammonia control permits to Animal Feeding Operations (AFOs) and asserts the department’s compliance with the federal Clean Water Act standards. An environmental advocacy group sued the state agency to tighten pollution regulations on AFOs. The department appealed to the intermediate court and, concurrently, the group petitioned this court, which agrees with the department that its pollution regulations as to AFOs comply with the Clean Water Act and do not need revision.
Court: Supreme Court of Maryland, Judge: Booth, Filed On: August 9, 2023, Case #: 482915V, Categories: administrative Law, environment, Government
J. Gleason denies companies' and the state's motion for summary judgment regarding a moratorium on oil and gas leases while a supplemental environmental review is conducted. The state argues that the moratorium violates the Administrative Procedure Act, because it was put in place without first allowing public commentary, and seek a permanent injunction vacating the moratorium. "A temporary moratorium on post-sale oil and gas activities on the Coastal Plain is 'well within the government’s authority.'” The moratorium does not violate the Administrative Procedure Act.
Court: USDC Alaska, Judge: Gleason, Filed On: August 7, 2023, Case #: 3:21cv245, NOS: Administrative Procedure Act/Review or Appeal of Agency Decision - Other Suits, Categories: administrative Law, environment
J. Jabar finds that the lower court improperly affirmed a decision of a city's zoning board of appeals that dismissed an appeal for lack of standing. The board of appeals erred when it determined that the nonprofit lacked standing to appeal the issuance of certain permits related to an aquaculture project. Specifically, the board failed "to consider the entire record" when making the standing determination. Also, the facts in the record show that the nonprofit was an aggrieved party. Vacated.
Court: Maine Supreme Court, Judge: Jabar, Filed On: August 3, 2023, Case #: 2023ME43, Categories: administrative Law, Civil Procedure, environment
J. Anderson partially reverses the Court of Appeals' decision on a Clean Water Act permit for the proposed copper-nickel mine. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's issuance of the permit was arbitrary and capricious, with several "danger signals" suggesting that it did not adequately consider the potential of a proposed mine to cause or contribute to an exceedance of water quality standards within the Lake Superior watershed. The permit also does not comply with a state law prohibiting discharge of industrial waste to the groundwater "unsaturated zone," but a prohibition on injecting polluted water directly to the groundwater "saturated zone" for long-term storage does not apply. The permit is remanded to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for further proceedings. Reversed in part.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Anderson, Filed On: August 2, 2023, Case #: A19-0112, Categories: administrative Law, environment
J. Wilkins grants energy trade groups and natural gas associations petitions for review challenging the Department of Energy's final rule instituting more stringent energy efficiency standards for commercial boilers. The department failed to sufficiently explain its reasoning, and it should have provided notice and comment.
Court: DC Circuit, Judge: Wilkins, Filed On: July 7, 2023, Case #: 22-1107 , Categories: administrative Law, Energy, environment
J. Dugan finds the circuit court improperly dismissed the park advocacy group's two petitions for judicial review challenging the natural resources department's approval of a plan to build a new snowmobile trail in a state park, which the group did in part because the department inadequately considered the environmental impacts of the trail. The group, as a Chapter 181 corporation under Wisconsin law with a written agreement with the department to operate as a "friends group" to use its efforts to assist and support the department and the state park, has both the capacity and standing to sue the department, neither of which it has waived, and neither of which are barred by the details of its articles of incorporation. The circuit court's decisions are overturned and the matter is remanded for further proceedings. Reversed.
Court: Wisconsin Court of Appeals, Judge: Dugan, Filed On: June 27, 2023, Case #: 2022AP001127, Categories: administrative Law, environment
J. Moore finds that the lower court improperly entered judgment in favor of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management officials in this declaratory judgment action concerning the validity of certain grievance procedures related to "complaints of unlawful discrimination." The lower court erred by failing to grant the landowners' summary judgment motion. The landowners demonstrated standing, and ADEM improperly adopted the grievance procedures "by an informal memorandum." Reversed.
Court: Alabama Court of Civil Appeals, Judge: Moore, Filed On: June 23, 2023, Case #: 2200821, Categories: administrative Law, Civil Procedure, environment
J. Bastian finds in favor of the environmental organization for its claim against the government agency's 2019 adoption of a forest management plan for the Colville National Forest, which will open 63% of the Colville National Forest to logging. The U.S. Forest Service violated the National Forest Management Act by not adequately explaining how the 2019 forest plan maintains the viability of old-growth dependent species, because the agency did not demonstrate how its data and methodology reliably and accurately supported this argument, and it did not provide a meaningful assessment of the amount and quality of old-growth habitat.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Washington, Judge: Bastian, Filed On: June 21, 2023, Case #: 2:21cv161, NOS: Administrative Procedure Act/Review or Appeal of Agency Decision - Other Suits, Categories: administrative Law, environment, Agency
[Consolidated.] J. Walker grants, in part, petitions for review filed by companies and associations representing heating, cooling and refrigeration interests on their challenge to the Environmental Protection Agency’s rule to phase out the use of hydrofluorocarbons. The EPA lacked the power to pass two regulations concerning the distribution of HFCs.
Court: DC Circuit, Judge: Walker, Filed On: June 20, 2023, Case #: 21-1251 , Categories: administrative Law, environment