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June 05, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the dismissal of a climate change lawsuit filed by a group of minors and young adults against President Donald J. Trump and a litany of federal officials over a series of executive orders designed to increase fossil fuel production, holding that they lacked Article III standing because their alleged injuries were too speculative to be traced to the orders and the relief they sought was beyond the constitutional powers of the court.
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June 05, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States contends that the Clean Air Act (CAA) and the U.S. Constitution preclude the notion that a single state can “dictate how the entire country—let alone the world—addresses a global problem with indivisible global effects” in support of a group of oil and gas companies asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a state high court ruling that federal law did not prohibit two Colorado municipalities’ state law claims alleging that the companies contributed to the effects of climate change.
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June 04, 2026
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — An environmental advocacy group filed a federal lawsuit pursuant to the Clean Water Act (CWA) against the operator of a California structural building materials manufacturer, alleging that for years it has failed to properly manage and monitor stormwater runoff in violation of its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) general permit.
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June 04, 2026
MIAMI — In another federal suit involving the development of a Florida immigration detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” an environmental nonprofit alleges that the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) failed to obtain a required permit under the Clean Air Act (CAA) to support the construction and operation of “a fleet of large diesel-burning generator sets for electrical power, diesel-burning lighting towers, and other air-polluting equipment and activities” at the site.
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June 04, 2026
SPOKANE, Wash. — A Canadian aftermarket wheel and tire distributor, its operating company and two associated individual plaintiffs agreed to pay $700,000 in civil penalties and to stop selling and distributing emissions control defeat products in the United States to settle a complaint filed by the government in a Washington state federal court alleging Clean Air Act (CAA) violations.
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June 03, 2026
SEATTLE — A federal judge in Washington held that the court lacks jurisdiction and granted summary judgment to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in a lawsuit brought by several states alleging the government unlawfully terminated a series of grants designed to bring solar energy and cost savings to low-income residents.
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June 02, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 1 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a Connecticut farmland owner seeking review of an order that held him liable for remediation of his property after he violated the Clean Water Act (CWA) by filling in wetlands without a permit.
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June 02, 2026
SANTA ANA, Calif. — Residents who live within 0.4 miles of the site of “a hazardous materials emergency” that occurred at a California aerospace manufacturing site filed a class action complaint against the owners and operators of the facility in federal court alleging claims including negligence, trespass, nuisance and strict liability for ultrahazardous activity after they were forced to evacuate due to potential threats to their health and safety.
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May 27, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Contending that a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals majority’s holdings “are inconsistent with basic principles of administrative and environmental law,” the U.S. Air Force urges the U.S. Supreme Court in a petitioner brief to reverse the majority’s ruling overturning the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by a Guam-based nonprofit corporation, under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), that challenged the agency’s decision to engage in hazardous waste disposal at Tarague Beach.
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May 19, 2026
POCATELLO, Idaho — The remaining two defendants named in a federal lawsuit filed by the United States seeking reimbursement of response costs incurred for cleanup of hazardous materials under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act at a shuttered Idaho industrial site stemming from the demolition of two buildings damaged by fire in a pair of proposed May 18 consent decrees agreed to pay a total of $360,000 to settle the claims, with one defendant set to pay significantly less than the other due to financial constraints.
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May 19, 2026
LEVERKUSEN, Germany — Bayer AG on May 18 announced settlements with Michigan and Rhode Island for potential claims by the states related to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) pollution. The settlements have a combined total minimum payment of $133 million, with the possibility of additional contingent payments tied to an indemnity lawsuit that Monsanto Co. filed against companies that it says agreed to cover certain liabilities from PCBs.
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May 18, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on May 18 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a uranium processing company and its former owner asking the court to decide whether radiation-dose regulations for nuclear incidents provide the exclusive standard of care in public liability actions pursuant to the Price-Anderson Act (PAA).
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May 18, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A group of oil and gas companies sued by two Colorado municipalities for alleged contributions to climate change urge the U.S. Supreme Court in a petitioner brief to reverse a state supreme court holding that federal law did not prohibit the cities’ state law claims, arguing that the decision was “incompatible with the structure of our constitutional system, the Clean Air Act [CAA], and this Court’s precedents.”
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May 18, 2026
NEW YORK — A federal judge held, in partially granting and denying a motion to dismiss, that a historic industrial community in New York can proceed with some, but not all, Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act and state law claims against International Business Machines Corp. for allegedly contaminating residential drinking water wells with toxic chemicals for decades, finding that claims associated with at least one of three of the community’s wells are part of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site covered by federal settlement agreements governing cleanup efforts.
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May 13, 2026
BOSTON — A company that operates a fleet of buses in Massachusetts agreed to implement a series of anti-idling and emissions controls and pay $5.6 million for pollution mitigation and litigation costs to settle a yearslong Clean Air Act (CAA) suit brought in federal court by an environmental group alleging violations of state anti-idling regulations.
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May 08, 2026
LOS ANGELES — The U.S. government and pipeline operators have filed briefs in California federal court seeking to terminate a 2020 consent decree that resolved a dispute over damages from a 2015 oil spill on a beach near Santa Barbara, Calif. The government argues that the consent decree should be terminated or modified because the pipeline companies that were parties to the consent decree have complied with its terms.
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May 07, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California terminated a consent decree and dismissed a lawsuit filed by a group of environmental nonprofits against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency after confirming that the agency issued final rules finding that the San Joaquin Valley failed to attain the 1997 8-hour ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) and approving Smog Check Contingency Measure State Implementation Plan (SIP) revisions.
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May 07, 2026
PENDLETON, Ore. — A lawsuit filed in Oregon federal court by a nonprofit dedicated to protecting the Owyhee Canyonlands alleging the U.S. Air Force violated the Clean Water Act (CWA) by polluting bodies of water in the area during training exercises at a base that encompasses hundreds of thousands of acres was dismissed without prejudice following a presidential memorandum exempting the agency’s jet fighter training operations in Idaho, Oregon and Nevada from water pollution regulations.
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May 06, 2026
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Contending that “Minnesota unilaterally claimed” a “regulatory authority” over greenhouse gas emissions “when it sued national energy producers in state court for alleged violations of state law,” the United States sued the state in federal court pursuant to the U.S. Constitution and the Clean Air Act (CAA) “to vindicate the supremacy of federal law in matters concerning the regulation of global greenhouse gas emissions and to redress its irreparable injuries.”
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May 05, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on May 4 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a man seeking clarification on how to challenge U.S. Environmental Protection Agency decisions and delays in court and to fix an alleged error regarding the correct lower court in which he was supposed to file a challenge to the EPA’s denial of new market entrant status in a program designed to scale back potent greenhouse gases.
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May 04, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Pursuant to the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting program, the United States filed a federal suit against the District of Columbia public utility that owns and operates a sanitary sewer pipeline that allegedly collapsed and discharged millions of gallons of raw, untreated sewage into the Potomac River over the course of nearly two months.
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May 04, 2026
SANTA ANA, Calif. — An environmental nonprofit dedicated to protecting and promoting “swimmable, drinkable, fishable water” throughout Orange County, on May 1 filed a complaint in a California federal court against the owners and operators of a concrete block production facility alleging violations of the Clean Water Act (CWA) for discharging polluted stormwater into surrounding drains and waters in excess of legal limits under the facility’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) general permit.
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May 04, 2026
PENDLETON, Ore. — A federal judge in Oregon, in denying a motion to consolidate two similar, pending lawsuits involving the alleged contamination of groundwater in the Lower Umatilla Basin by Amazon Data Services (ADS), the Port of Morrow and several agricultural companies in violation of state law and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), held that “the judicial economy does not require consolidation” of the cases and opined that joining them could prejudice the defendants.
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May 04, 2026
CINCINNATI — In a proposed consent decree resolving a federal lawsuit brought by the United States alleging improper handling of refrigerants pursuant to the Clean Air Act (CAA), a national grocery store chain is slated to pay a $2.5 million civil penalty and implement a series of corrective actions, including creation of a companywide compliance program, meeting strict leak-performance standards, upgrading its refrigeration systems and performing ongoing monitoring and reporting.
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May 04, 2026
LOS ANGELES — The owner and operator of an industrial solid waste management facility accused of discharging polluted stormwater into the Los Angeles River agreed to pay $116,000 in compliance oversight and mitigation costs and attorney fees and implement a series of comprehensive pollution controls to settle a federal suit filed by an environmental nonprofit alleging violations of the Clean Water Act (CWA) and National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit conditions.