63 results for 'cat:"Administrative Law" AND cat:"Environment"'.
J. Fisher finds that the lower court improperly annulled the decision authorizing an oversight agency to use an aquatic herbicide to control spread of the invasive Eurasian watermilfoil in Lake George. The board of the Adirondack Park Agency rationally approved the permit, as members received scientific studies and research demonstrating that the herbicide would be minimally harmful to native plants and water insects and more cost-effective than previously attempted eradication methods. Meanwhile, the agency was due judicial deference on factual evaluations within its area of expertise. Reversed.
Court: New York Appellate Divisions, Judge: Fisher, Filed On: May 2, 2024, Case #: CV-23-0672, Categories: administrative Law, environment
[Consolidated.] J. Walker refuses to grant petitions for review filed by environmental groups that challenge the Federal Energy Regulator Commission's certification of an expansion of pipelines and facilities for the Evangeline Pass Expansion Project in the Southeastern U.S. The agency reasonably explained its decision, and the certification was reasonable.
Court: DC Circuit, Judge: Walker, Filed On: April 30, 2024, Case #: 22-1101 , Categories: administrative Law, Energy, environment
[Consolidated.] J. Herndon finds the district court properly determined a per se regulatory taking occurred, awarding $48 million to the landowner. The city adopted a plan reclassifying ranch land as allowing for "residential densities," along with a golf course. The owner's efforts to develop the property were rendered futile by the city's actions, supporting that the regulatory taking occurred. The court properly relied on the owner's expert's valuation to determine just compensation, and the city did not challenge the valuation or provide an alternative. Affirmed.
Court: Nevada Supreme Court, Judge: Herndon , Filed On: April 18, 2024, Case #: 84345, Categories: administrative Law, environment, Property
J. Moss denies the state of Florida's motion for a stay of a prior order granting partial summary judgment to environmental groups in a suit alleging that federal regulators improperly delegated permitting authority to Florida regulators, and denies its motion for final judgment while granting its alternative request for relief in the form of partial final judgment. A limited stay in this case “is neither workable nor desirable,” and would require the Court to develop a program splitting work between different agencies over those agencies’ objections and result in needless redundancy. The final judgment motion is denied because one count, regarding the Army Corps of Engineers’ retained waters list, has remaining controversies to resolve. This count, however, is substantially distinct from the other counts in its legal theory and the administrative record it involves, so final, appealable judgment is entered as to the other counts.
Court: USDC District of Columbia, Judge: Moss, Filed On: April 12, 2024, Case #: 1:21cv119, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: administrative Law, Civil Procedure, environment
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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
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. 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. Steigmann finds that the Board properly entered a final order for a set of state-wide standards regulating the storage and disposal of coal ash in surface impoundments, rejecting several energy companies' objections. The Board did not act arbitrarily by adopting a requirement for monthly groundwater monitoring, and by requiring an operator who elects to close an impoundment to remove containment system components such as the impoundment liner and contaminated subsoils. Affirmed.
Court: Illinois Appellate Court, Judge: Steigmann, Filed On: March 14, 2024, Case #: 210304, Categories: administrative Law, Energy, environment
J. Cochran affirms the Board of Water and Soil Resources' denial of administrative appeals of orders requiring the restoration of wetlands the appellants filled with aggregate and soil. State law authorizes local government units to electronically transmit notices of their decisions unless the recipient has provided a mailing address and specified that they prefer mailing. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Court Of Appeals, Judge: Cochran, Filed On: March 11, 2024, Case #: A23-0642, Categories: administrative Law, Civil Procedure, environment
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
J. Ginsburg upholds the district court's dismissal of an environmental group's challenge to two rules that delayed the effective date of a proposed rule that would have reduced the amount of land designated as critical habitat for an endangered species of spotted owl. The group's claims became moot when the two rules expired. Affirmed.
Court: DC Circuit, Judge: Ginsburg, Filed On: March 5, 2024, Case #: 22-5216 , Categories: administrative Law, environment
J. Fujisaki finds that the Department of Toxic Substances Control was within its discretion to classify violations at an oil and hazardous waste treatment facility as Class I violations. Class I violations are not limited to significant threats to human health or safety or the environment, but may also include operational deviations that might result in failures to accomplish the objectives enumerated in the Hazardous Waste Control Law, such as the ability to perform emergency cleanup operations or to ensure adequate financial resources to shut down a facility. Affirmed.
Court: California Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Fujisaki, Filed On: March 4, 2024, Case #: A166575, Categories: administrative Law, environment
J. Rogers reverses, in part, the district court's finding for the Secretary of the Department of Commerce on a group of commercial fishers' challenge to a final rule that modified the allocation of red group between the recreational and commercial sectors. The Fisheries Service must address whether the economic analysis used to support the final rule is sufficiently different than the one used to support a formerly discredited final amendment.
Court: DC Circuit, Judge: Rogers, Filed On: March 1, 2024, Case #: 23-5026 , Categories: administrative Law, Commerce, environment
Per curiam, the circuit grants, in part, 16 states’ and a group of industries’ petition for review of the Environmental Protection Agency's demand the states revise their state implementation plans under the Clean Air Act. They have sufficiently supported their claims the state implementation plan-call order must be vacated based on automatic exemptions, director's discretion provisions and affirmative defenses that are functionally exemptions.
Court: DC Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: March 1, 2024, Case #: 15-1239 , Categories: administrative Law, environment
J. Snauffer finds that the trial court improperly invalidated a regulatory notice issued by the Geologic Energy Management Division which requires oil operators to cease operations if a "surface expression" appears outside of a wellbore as a result of injection operations. The regulations are consistent with the Public Resources Code and with the Division's mandate to promote health and safety. They are supported by substantial evidence that human life is endangered by the appearance of oil, water, steam, gas, formation solids or debris within 150 feet of a well. Vacated.
Court: California Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Snauffer, Filed On: March 1, 2024, Case #: F085832, Categories: administrative Law, Energy, environment
J. Baker finds that the district court improperly revoked a permit to build and operate a copper mine next to a tributary of the Smith River. The Department of Environmental Quality satisfied both the Metal Mining Reclamation Act and the Environmental Policy act in approving the mine operator's proposed cemented tailings facility. The department also conducted a rational evaluation of the impact of nitrogen discharges into the tributary. Reversed.
Court: Montana Supreme Court, Judge: Baker, Filed On: February 26, 2024, Case #: DA 22-0406, Categories: administrative Law, environment, Property
J. Gleason denies oil and gas lease holders' motion to alter the judgment and motion to vacate the court's order dismissing their claims with prejudice. The lease holders asserted that the government's moratorium on activities related to the oil and gas leases in order to conduct supplemental environmental review caused loss of revenue and employment opportunities that would have come from development of the leases. The moratorium temporarily prevented the lease holders from developing its leases, and the leases were not “cancelled, rescinded, nullified, or otherwise undone.”
Court: USDC Alaska, Judge: Gleason, Filed On: February 22, 2024, Case #: 3:21cv245, NOS: Administrative Procedure Act/Review or Appeal of Agency Decision - Other Suits, Categories: administrative Law, environment
J. Calabretta denies, in part, California Air Resources Board officials’ motion to dismiss two railroad associations’ challenges to new locomotive regulations. The associations have sufficiently pleaded their claims related to idling requirements, reporting and recordkeeping requirements, and an administrative payment provision.
Court: USDC Eastern District of California, Judge: Calabretta, Filed On: February 16, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv1154, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: administrative Law, environment, Transportation
J. Kleeh grants the regulatory agency's motion for summary judgment in the company's complaint alleging the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) denied its application for an incidental taking permit to harvest timber by keeping the application in "perpetual administrative limbo." Based on the administrative record as a whole, the company is largely to blame for the permit being in limbo since it stopped cooperating with FWS on developing a habitat conservation plan, which is the second part of the four phases required to receive permit approval.
Court: USDC Northern District of West Virginia, Judge: Kleeh, Filed On: February 12, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv7, NOS: Administrative Procedure Act/Review or Appeal of Agency Decision - Other Suits, Categories: administrative Law, environment, Government