The Supreme Court issued 58 opinions in the October 2022 Term. Rulings in several cases will affect the practice of regulatory and administrative law either directly or indirectly, as is recounted below. Before the Court...more
8/25/2023
/ Civil Rights Act ,
Clean Water Act ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Farm Animals ,
Interstate Commerce ,
Jurisdiction ,
Mallory v Norfolk Southern Railway Co ,
Pipelines ,
Popular ,
Sackett v EPA ,
SCOTUS ,
Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard College ,
Waters of the United States ,
Wetlands
As 2022 draws to a close, here is a brief description of recent environmental and regulatory law rulings, as well as new federal rulemaking proceedings....more
12/21/2022
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Endangered Species Act (ESA) ,
Environmental Litigation ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
FERC ,
Flint Water Crisis ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Pipelines ,
Popular ,
Texas ,
Water
It is already early in 2022, but several important environmental cases have already been decided by the federal district and federal appellate courts. THE COURTS OF APPEAL - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ...more
The federal courts have issued some significant environmental law rulings in the past few days. THE U.S. SUPREME COURT - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service v. Sierra Club, Inc. On March 4, 2021, the court held that the...more
3/25/2021
/ Act of God ,
Clean Air Act ,
Clean Water Act ,
Department of the Interior ,
Endangered Species Act (ESA) ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Exxon Mobil ,
FERC ,
FOIA ,
Natural Gas ,
Pipelines ,
SCOTUS ,
US Army Corps of Engineers ,
US Fish and Wildlife Service ,
US Fish and Wildlife Service v Sierra Club
February saw the usual array of significant environmental decisions and federal regulatory notices. THE FEDERAL COURTS - U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia - Luminant Generation v. EPA - The court will be...more
The final NEPA rule substantially revises environmental review procedures and incorporates most of the perceived controversial changes proposed last January, including elimination of cumulative impact analysis, and shortening...more
Here’s a report on several new decisions made over the past few days. U.S. SUPREME COURT - U.S. Army Corps of Engineers v. Northern Plains Resources Council - On July 8, 2020, the Court has issued a partial stay of the...more
Several interesting decisions have recently been made by federal and state courts. FEDERAL APPELLATE COURTS - The U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals – ARCO Shifts from State to Federal and No Vigor for VIM - On June 18,...more
Last week (June 1-7, 2020), the federal appellate courts released several important rulings. Town of Weymouth, et al. v. Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection - On June 3, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals...more
Decision creates difficult permitting challenges for oil and gas pipelines crossing jurisdictional waters.
Oil and gas pipelines continue to face difficult permitting challenges as Ninth Circuit declines to revive vacated...more
6/5/2020
/ Clean Water Act ,
Construction Industry ,
Dakota Access Pipeline ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Keystone XL Pipeline ,
National Marine Fisheries Service ,
Nationwide Permits (NWPs) ,
Oil & Gas ,
Pipelines ,
SCOTUS ,
US Fish and Wildlife Service
On February 24, 2020, the Supreme Court heard the oral arguments in the case of U.S. Forest Service, et al. v. Cowpasture River Preservation Association, et al....more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit decided the case of Allegheny Defense Project, et al. v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on August 2, 2019. ...more
Federal Courts of Appeal -
Dam Claims Collapse -
On May 7, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit decided the case of Navelski, et al. v. International Paper Company....more
On October 30, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit decided the case of Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co., LLC v. Permanent Easements for 2.14 Acres, et al. , affirming the District Court’s grant of a preliminary...more
Within the past few weeks, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has issued some very significant rulings regarding the construction of new natural gas pipelines. ...more
8/9/2018
/ Bureau of Land Management ,
Endangered Species Act (ESA) ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Impact Report (EIR) ,
FERC ,
Natural Gas ,
Natural Gas Act ,
NEPA ,
Oil & Gas ,
Pipelines ,
US Fish and Wildlife Service
On July 25, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit decided the case of Adorers of the Blood of Christ v. FERC, and affirmed the order of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania dismissing the...more
On July 10, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decided another Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) case, Delaware Riverkeeper Network and Maya Van Rossum v. FERC....more
On April 12, a significant Clean Water Act (CWA) ruling has been made by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. The Fourth Circuit, in a split decision, held, in a case of first impression in this circuit, that the...more
On March 12, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a decision interpreting Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 401 and the Federal Regulatory Energy Commission’s (FERC) permitting authority, which may have settled...more
On February 27, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana granted a motion for a preliminary injunction filed by a group of environmental plaintiffs seeking to halt the construction of an oil pipeline in...more
On October 11, the U.S. States District Court for the District of Columbia issued its latest ruling on the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAP). The case is Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe v. US Army Corps of...more
On October 3, in the case of Boerschig v. Trans-Pecos Pipeline, LLC, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the lower court’s denial of request for a preliminary injunction to enjoin Texas state condemnation...more
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) decision in the matter of Millennium Pipeline Company, LLC was issued on September 15, 2017. FERC determined that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation...more
On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, in the case of Sierra Club, at al., v. FERC, rejected most of the arguments made against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) decision to approve the...more
On August 14, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued its opinion in the case of ExxonMobil Pipeline Company v. U.S. Department of Transportation. In May of 2013, ExxonMobil Pipeline Company’s (ExxonMobil)...more