8 results for 'cat:"Administrative Law" AND cat:"Environment" AND cat:"Agency"'.
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. 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. Grogan finds the circuit court properly granted summary judgment to the commerce lobby and dry cleaning business in their lawsuit challenging certain regulations put in place by the natural resources agency regarding PFAS and other contaminants. The agency's policies for PFAS and other "emerging contaminants" fall under the statutory definition of "rules" according to the five-factor test established by Wisconsin Supreme Court precedent, and the rules are invalid and unenforceable because the agency did not put them through statutorily required rule-making procedures under state law which, among other things, give parties affected by the rules proper notice of how the law is to be implemented. Affirmed.
Court: Wisconsin Court of Appeals, Judge: Grogan, Filed On: March 6, 2024, Case #: 2022AP000718, Categories: administrative Law, environment, agency
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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. 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