9th Circuit Denies Rehearing En Banc Case Over ‘Hard Look’ Required By NEPA

Mealey's (September 28, 2022, 9:34 AM EDT) -- SAN FRANCISCO — A panel of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has denied a petition for rehearing en banc of its earlier decision that reversed a lower court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of federal agencies in a hydraulic fracturing dispute in which the panel found that the agencies had failed to take a “hard look” required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when they approved drilling in the Pacific Outer Continental Shelf off the coast of California....