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July 30, 2026
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — Several environmental nonprofits are asking a California court to require the city of Barstow to “vacate and set aside” approvals associated with the planned development of a project deemed “the largest rail facility in the country,” alleging that it is slated to cause “significant contributions to local and regional environmental pollution” through both construction and eventual operation.
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July 30, 2026
TRENTON, N.J. — In a pair of briefs, the United States and the state of Montana voiced approval of a settlement in the Whittaker, Clark & Daniels Inc. (WCD) asbestos-related bankruptcies in the federal bankruptcy court in New Jersey that would, among other things, convey the Lockwood Solvent Superfund Site to a trust benefiting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Montana, saying the agreement serves the public interest and furthers the goals of federal law governing environmental remediation.
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July 29, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge granted a joint motion on July 28 filed by the United States and the public utility that owns and operates a sanitary sewer pipeline that collapsed and reportedly discharged millions of gallons of raw, untreated sewage into the Potomac River to extend a stay of a lawsuit filed over the pipeline collapse pursuant to the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting program as the parties continue engaging in “productive settlement negotiations.”
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July 28, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Colorado county and major city argue in a July 27 respondent brief that a group of oil and gas companies “have come to the wrong forum at the wrong time with the wrong arguments” in response to the companies’ argument that the U.S. Supreme Court should overturn a state high court’s ruling that federal law did not preempt the municipalities’ state-law claims alleging that the companies contributed to the effects of climate change.
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July 27, 2026
SALT LAKE CITY — A federal judge in Utah denied a motion filed by a medical science nonprofit to enforce a consent decree that prohibited four Utah Harley-Davidson dealerships from removing motorcycle air and emission control devices and selling aftermarket parts and vehicles without them, finding that the nonprofit could not “show by clear and convincing evidence that Defendants violated the Consent Decree merely by demonstrating that Defendants sold a motorcycle with aftermarket exhaust parts.”
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July 27, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A resident filed a putative class action complaint in California state court against the owners and operators of a refrigerated warehouse and companies responsible for a solar array on its roof, arguing that they are liable after a fire released a toxic plume of anhydrous ammonia, caused small explosions and forced local residents to evacuate their homes.
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July 24, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia U.S. Court of Appeals panel vacated a D.C. federal judge’s dismissal of a lawsuit filed by nonprofit organizations, higher education institutions, tribes and local governments challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s rescission of the Climate Justice Block Grant program and remanded the case for a determination of mootness.
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July 23, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in an unpublished opinion that two automotive industry trade groups and the American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce (AmFree) can intervene as a matter of right in a California lawsuit challenging federal resolutions that eliminated Clean Air Act (CAA) preemption waivers for new-motor-vehicle emissions, and reversed and remanded for reconsideration the denial of permissive intervention for several other agricultural and energy industry associations, in a California lawsuit challenging a series of federal resolutions that eliminated Clean Air Act (CAA) preemption waivers for regulating greenhouse gas emissions for new motor vehicles.
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July 21, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Guam-based nonprofit corporation that challenged the U.S. Air Force’s decision to engage in hazardous waste disposal at Tarague Beach contends in a July 20 respondent brief that the U.S. Supreme Court should affirm a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals majority’s decision to reverse and remand dismissal of its suit because the government “ignores” court precedent, congressional laws and federal procedures in arguing that the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) displaces National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requirements and because the Air Force submitted a permit-renewal application that constituted final agency action subject to judicial review by reflecting its decision to continue the operations.
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July 20, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A group of minors and young adults who filed a climate change lawsuit against President Donald J. Trump and a litany of federal officials over a series of executive orders designed to increase fossil fuel production say that rehearing en banc of a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel’s affirmance of the suit’s dismissal is warranted, arguing that the decision was “the first circuit court opinion ever to deny Article III judicial power to review an allegedly unconstitutional Executive Order.”
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July 15, 2026
ROME, Ga. — A federal judge in Georgia denied the bulk of a series of summary judgment motions filed by several chemical manufacturers in a lawsuit brought by Summerville, Ga., water and sewer subscribers and ratepayers over the manufacturers’ alleged roles in contaminating the groundwater with toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), allowing most of the claims to proceed to trial.
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July 10, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s disapproval of Louisiana’s state implementation plan (SIP) for air quality remains in effect after a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel denied petitions for rehearing and rehearing en banc filed by the state and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) asking the court to vacate and remand the disapproval following the panel’s reversal of the disapproval of Texas’ similar plan in a substitute opinion.
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July 09, 2026
HONOLULU — A federal judge in Hawaii altered, but did not amend, a judgment dismissing a lawsuit from with prejudice to without prejudice that was filed by the United States over the state’s threat to sue fossil fuel companies for their alleged liability for contributing to climate change, thus removing a barrier that prevented the government from filing a new action.
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July 09, 2026
OKLAHOMA CITY — A nonprofit advocacy group with a mission to ensure compliance with federal environmental laws in connection with the construction of the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority’s East-West Connector Turnpike Project filed a federal lawsuit against the authority and several federal agencies alleging violations of the Clean Water Act (CWA), Administrative Procedure Act (APA), National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Department of Transportation Act (DTA) and Endangered Species Act (ESA) for failing to protect the waters, endangered species habitats and overall environment surrounding the project during planning and early construction.
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July 08, 2026
MISSOULA, Mont. — The owner and operator of a former aluminum smelting plant in northwest Montana has agreed to reimburse the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency $1.8 million for past response costs, pay future response costs and complete more than $57 million in cleanup work to resolve claims brought under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and corresponding state Superfund law arising from the release of hazardous substances at the site of the shuttered facility.
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July 07, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge granted a nonprofit environmental group leave to intervene as a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by the United States pursuant to the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting program against the public utility that owns and operates a sanitary sewer pipeline that collapsed and reportedly discharged millions of gallons of raw, untreated sewage into the Potomac River over the course of nearly two months.
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July 02, 2026
TRENTON, N.J. — In two settlement agreements approved by a federal judge, a group of publicly owned wastewater and sewage authorities and 18 New Jersey counties will rescind objections to judicial consent orders proposed by the state to settle federal claims against 3M and several DuPont-affiliated chemical companies related to contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from activity at DuPont’s Chambers Works plant in exchange for the state shelling out millions of dollars for cleanup projects, clean-water infrastructure and liability protection.
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June 30, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 29 denied a petition for writ of certiorari filed by three environmental nonprofits and a fish and wildlife biologist asking for review of the scope of a Clean Water Act (CWA) exemption for agricultural return flows following an appellate panel’s affirmation of an order holding that discharges from the tile-drain system of a federal water management and environmental restoration project that serves irrigated farmland in California’s Central Valley fall under that exemption.
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June 30, 2026
OXFORD, Miss. — The United States filed a motion “to intervene as of right as a plaintiff and to dismiss” a federal lawsuit filed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People against xAI Corp. and an energy infrastructure affiliate under the Clean Air Act (CAA) and state permitting laws over construction and operation of dozens of gas combustion turbines that power a Memphis, Tenn., data center, contending that the suit could threaten national security, as well as “artificial intelligence innovation, plus the energy needed to power it.”
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June 30, 2026
SEATTLE — A Washington state-based food manufacturing company has agreed to implement stormwater compliance measures and pay $900,000 for an environmental benefit project and litigation costs to settle a federal lawsuit filed by an environmental nonprofit alleging that the company violated the Clean Water Act and the terms of its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit by discharging polluted stormwater into navigable waters surrounding its facility in Kent.
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June 30, 2026
DENVER — A 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel reversed and remanded a New Mexico federal judge’s dismissal of a lawsuit filed by the United States challenging a state agency’s definition of hazardous waste in a renewed permit issued to the Cannon Air Force Base (AFB). The panel held that the judge erred in ruling that the case had to be heard in the New Mexico Court of Appeals and was wrong to decline to hear the case because of a related state court proceeding.
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June 26, 2026
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — In a chemical exposure case brought by residents against the town of Brookhaven related to its operation of a landfill, a New York appellate panel has ruled that the federal discovery rule under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) preempts New York’s toxic tort statute of limitations even though the landfill in question is not a Superfund site. As a result, the panel affirmed a trial court decision that denied the town’s motion to dismiss the case.
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June 24, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In denying a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a Georgia-based refrigerant producer, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a constitutional nondelegation challenge to the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act of 2020 and the Environmental Protection Agency’s implementation of the act through a final rule allocating allowances for the production and consumption of synthetic chemical refrigerants that have been linked to global warming.
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June 22, 2026
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California federal judge granted the United States’ motion to intervene as a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by the American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce (AmFree) challenging a partnership agreement between the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and major manufacturers of trucks and engines requiring the manufacturers to meet California's strict heavy duty truck-emissions regulations, regardless of federal legal challenges, in exchange for more flexibility and regulatory lead time.
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June 19, 2026
FORT WAYNE, Ind. — An Indiana federal judge largely refused to exclude plaintiffs’ experts’ testimony in a long-running groundwater contamination lawsuit against RTX Corp. and other defendants, while barring a psychiatrist from opining on the reasonableness of the plaintiffs’ emotional distress.