564 results for 'cat:"Environment"'.
J. Whitehead awards the nonprofit organization $359,100 in attorney fees following a consent decree for its complaint that the state government office enacted hatchery programs that affected the threatened Puget Sound steelhead and did not undergo required review, in violation of the Endangered Species Act. The attorneys' requested rates range from $290 per hour to $700 per hour based on the level of experience, which are reasonable.
Court: USDC Western District of Washington, Judge: Whitehead, Filed On: March 30, 2024, Case #: 2:21cv169, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: environment, Attorney Fees
J. Moss denies the Bureau of Land Management and State of Utah's motions for partial dismissal and partially grants their motions for summary judgment in the animal activist group's action challenging their management plans for wild horse populations, and partially grants the activist group's motion for summary judgment. The four ten-year plans the group challenges are set aside insofar as they purport to authorize new gathers of wild horses after achieving "appropriate management levels," but the group's challenge to a specific 2021 gather in the Onaqui Mountain Herd Management Area is moot, its challenge of the ten-year gather plans themselves under the National Environmental Policy Act fails because the Bureau sufficiently analyzed them under NEPA, and its claim that the Bureau departed from prior policy without an explanation does not identify a specific requirement that the bureau has failed to meet. All these are therefore dismissed.
Court: USDC District of Columbia, Judge: Moss, Filed On: March 30, 2024, Case #: 1:18cv2029, NOS: Administrative Procedure Act/Review or Appeal of Agency Decision - Other Suits, Categories: Administrative Law, environment
[Consolidated.] J. Goldman finds that the trial court improperly granted a shooting range's motion to strike allegations that it had violated its lease with a city by demolishing and rebuilding its facility. It also erred in sustaining the range's demurrers on a neighbor's Environmental Quality Act and zoning claims. Reversed.
Court: California Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Goldman, Filed On: March 29, 2024, Case #: A165345, Categories: environment, Property, Zoning
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J. Gleason grants the federal government's motion for summary judgment regarding a dispute with the state over the closure of 180 miles of river to non-subsistence uses in order to conserve the fish population for rural residents who would be allowed limited subsistence use of the section. The state authorized gillnet fishing by all state residents on three days. "The State has failed to create a genuine dispute of material fact as to federal preemption." The federal government is entitled to a permanent injunction as it has shown irreparable harm to its ability to enforce rural subsistence priority with the state's conflicting emergency orders.
Court: USDC Alaska, Judge: Gleason, Filed On: March 29, 2024, Case #: 1:22cv54, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: environment
[Consolidated.] J. Pan denies two environmental groups' petitions for review challenging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's grant of extensions of time to two developers for their pipeline construction projects. The standards adopted by FERC are reasonable and fall within its discretion.
Court: DC Circuit, Judge: Pan, Filed On: March 29, 2024, Case #: 22-1233 , Categories: Energy, environment
J. Tunheim grants motions for summary judgment brought by the EPA, state regulators and major iron and steel industry players in the Native American bands' suit alleging that the agency failed to consider impacts on wild rice and fish protected by treaty rights when it approved Minnesota's 2021 water quality standards. The agency's decision was based on science and data in which it and one of the state regulators are experts, and therefore its decision was not arbitrary or capricious. Minnesota's alleged struggles to implement and enforce those standards are also not a factor that the agency must consider in deciding whether to approve them.
Court: USDC Minnesota, Judge: Tunheim, Filed On: March 29, 2024, Case #: 0:22cv1783, NOS: Administrative Procedure Act/Review or Appeal of Agency Decision - Other Suits, Categories: Administrative Law, environment, Native Americans
J. Contreras offers a mixed bag to both the National Parks Conservation Association and the Department of the Interior, which the association is suing for allegedly failing to protect Florida’s Biscayne National Park. ON the one hand, the federal government has delayed the implementation of a marine reserve zone for too long, but on the other, it has not issued a final agency action that the court can review for being arbitrary and capricious. The association is owed FOIA attorney fees. The government is ordered to propose a zone designation as soon as it can.
Court: USDC District of Columbia, Judge: Contreras, Filed On: March 29, 2024, Case #: 1:20cv3706, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: Administrative Law, environment, Agency
J. Du grants the animal rights activists' motion for summary judgment. The activists allege the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Department of the Interior, and the Nevada Bureau of Land Management violated the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act and the National Environmental Policy Act by a recent roundup of wild horses. Reducing livestock grazing to increase wild horse management levels was not reasonable because it would have undermined the roundup's stated purpose to “prevent undue... degradation...and to restore ecological balance.” The bureau must prepare a herd management area plan and reanalyze foreseeable effects and significance of its roundup alternatives on wildfire risks.
Court: USDC Nevada, Judge: Du, Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: 3:22cv34, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: Administrative Law, environment, Agency
J. Hardy approved a consent decree between two environmental organizations and a steel manufacturer, finding the manufacturer will pay $5 million in penalties and settlement payments, plus $3 million towards litigation costs, after a control room fire at the steel manufacturer’s plant spurred a Clean Air Act violation complaint.
Court: USDC Western District of Pennsylvania, Judge: Hardy, Filed On: March 26, 2024, Case #: 2:19cv484, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: Civil Rights, environment, Negligence
J. Kendall partially grants a food company’s motion to dismiss a consumer fraud class action. A class of consumers sued the food company after they bought its “Certified Sustainably Sourced” fish products, only to discover that the company employed a non-ecofriendly “pelagic trawl” fishing method that indiscriminately captures everything in the path of a net the size of two football fields. The court will allow the class’s fraud and state-level claims to move forward, but denies their motion for an injunction against the company’s unsustainable fishing practices. The court argues that because the class is now aware the company’s fish is unsustainably sourced, “any future harm is too speculative to support standing for injunctive relief.”
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Kendall, Filed On: March 25, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv1298, NOS: Contract Product Liability - Contract, Categories: environment, Fraud, Class Action
[Consolidated.] J. Austin denies the landfill's motion to dismiss. The residents claim gross negligence and recklessness against the landfill after its acceptance of additional tonnage of waste resulted in the release of noxious odors, as well as the physical intrusion of trash, hazardous waste, soiled diapers and other solid waste onto the residents' properties. Allegations are sufficient to establish a plausible claim for relief.
Court: USDC South Carolina Aiken, Judge: Austin, Filed On: March 25, 2024, Case #: 8:23cv1417, NOS: Torts to Land - Real Property, Categories: environment, Negligence
J. Lindbom finds a lower court properly dismissed an energy company's "unfairly distorted" ruling in favor of the secretary of State for energy security and net zero concerning a proposed development of two offshore windfarms. The energy company argued that the proposed development was in the interest of the public. However, the government's impact environmental assessment showed that the majority of nearby landowners objected to the development and that the project would be detrimental to nearby habitats, cultural heritage, and landscapes.
Court: Her Majesty's Court of Appeal, Judge: Lindblom, Filed On: March 22, 2024, Case #: CA-2023-1527, Categories: Construction, environment, Government
J. Cooper denies, in part, the Bureau of Land Management's motion for summary judgment on several conservation groups' challenge to the sale of 120,000 acres in Wyoming for drilling. The agency erroneously assessed the sale's impact on groundwater and wildlife, and did not explain how its analysis of greenhouse gas emission affected its decision.
Court: USDC District of Columbia, Judge: Cooper, Filed On: March 22, 2024, Case #: 1:22cv1871, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: Energy, environment, Property
J. Wilson vacates the Environmental Protection Agency's order prohibiting the plastic container manufacturer from producing toxic long-chain perfluoroalkyls through its fluorination process. The EPA exceeded its statutory authority, and it may not skirt Administrative Procedure Act framework by arbitrarily deeming the company's decades-old fluorination process a “significant new use.” Reversed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Wilson , Filed On: March 21, 2024, Case #: 23-60620, Categories: Administrative Law, environment, Agency
J. Dale grants in part environmental groups' motion for summary judgment regarding their challenge of Idaho Senate Bill 1211, which authorizes wolf trapping and snaring in grizzly bear habitat, and which they claim will lead to the unlawful "take" of grizzly bears in violation of the Endangered Species Act. The group seek to enjoin the authorization of recreational wolf trapping and snaring until the state obtains an incidental take permit from the Fish and Wildlife Service. The groups have shown they have standing and provided evidence that lawfully set wolf traps and snares are reasonably likely to take grizzly bears. The state is enjoined from authorizing wolf trapping and snaring in grizzly bear habitat except when it is reasonably certain that almost all grizzly bears will be in dens: December 1 to February 28.
Court: USDC Idaho, Judge: Dale, Filed On: March 19, 2024, Case #: 1:21cv479, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: environment
J. Higginson finds the district court improperly ruled against the insurer in this declaratory judgment action, in which it seeks to invalidate certain indemnification and additional insured provisions for fire-suppression and electrical work in its policies with salt mining companies. The insurer says the Louisiana Oilfield Indemnity Act applies because the mine uses a drill-and-blast method, yet the court found that because no well is involved the Act does not apply. However, the Act does not contain a universal well requirement. The court must decide whether the contracts pertain to drilling for minerals. Reversed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Higginson , Filed On: March 18, 2024, Case #: 23-30076, Categories: Energy, environment, Insurance
J. Mann finds that the lower court misinterpreted the language of new permit rules set out by the state regarding stormwater runoff. The lower court found that the permit rules, which state that transportation facilities must obtain coverage under the stromwater runoff permit, only apply to "limited portions of the covered transportation facilities." But that interpretation does not take into consideration a broader reading of the rules' language, and when taken together, the permit rules make it clear that the rules apply to an entire transportation facility. Reversed.
Court: Washington Court Of Appeals, Judge: Mann, Filed On: March 18, 2024, Case #: 85665-1-I, Categories: environment, Transportation
J. Graves finds the district court properly granted summary judgment to the insurer. The company that converts used cooking oil and vegetable by-products into animal feed ingredients was sued by the city for dumping corrosive, low-pH wastewater into the sewer system. A pollution exclusion designed to discourage wasteful activity states the insurer "will not be liable for loss for any claim based upon or arising out of the...discharge, dispersal, seepage, migration, release or escape of any [p]ollutant.” The facts as pleaded do not trigger the insurer's duty to defend. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Graves , Filed On: March 18, 2024, Case #: 23-60087, Categories: environment, Insurance