Environmental Law, Energy & Utilities Law, Zoning, Planning & Land Use

Tennessee Finalizes Environmental Regulations Concerning Fracking

by Frederick Hitchcock, Willa Kalaidjian | Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel, P.C. on 5/24/2013

On May 22, 2013, the Tennessee General Assembly’s joint committee on government operations approved Tennessee’s first rules regulating the use of hydraulic fracturing to extract oil and natural gas from wells....more

Huron County Seeks Clarification On Taxes

by Varnum LLP on 5/23/2013

The Board of Commissioners for Huron County have resolved to not take any more action regarding wind energy projects until Michigan clarifies the legislation and taxation of wind turbine....more

BLM Issues New Draft Fracking Regulations

by Paul Enockson | BakerHostetler on 5/21/2013

On Thursday, May 16, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued its lasted proposed fracking regulations. The proposed regulations would require wider disclosure of fracking chemicals. The regulations also require water...more

BLM Issues Revised Proposed Fracking Regulations

by Donald Baur, Barbara Schussman, Nidhi Thakar, Tyler Welti | Perkins Coie on 5/21/2013

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has issued a revised proposed rule for regulating hydraulic fracturing—or “fracking.” ...more

Settlement Reached in Riverside County Solar Power Plant Policy Lawsuit - Settlement Pending Board of Supervisors’ Approval of...

by Sophie Akins, Robert Hargreaves | Best Best & Krieger LLP on 5/20/2013

Riverside County and the solar developers who challenged the county’s solar power plant ordinance in court came to a tentative settlement agreement, approved by a Riverside judge last week. Before the solar developers drop...more

EPA Declines to Create New Air Pollution Control Program for Coal Mines – For Now.

by Christopher "Kip" B. Power | Dinsmore & Shohl LLP on 5/20/2013

By letter dated April 30, 2013, EPA Acting Administrator Bob Perciasepe denied a petition filed by the Sierra Club and other groups, seeking to have the agency issue a determination pursuant to section 111 of the federal...more

Reed Smith Marcellus Shale Tax Update - Recycle, Reuse, Reduce Your Tax Burdens

by Stephen Blazick, Daniel Dixon, Lee Zoeller | Reed Smith on 5/17/2013

Pennsylvania’s broad mining exemption from sales and use tax also includes an exemption for pollution-control devices that is less well known than the general exemption for mining equipment. The pollution-control exemption...more

U.S. Coast Guard and Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement Sign Agreement on Offshore Oversight

by David Dickman, Megan Roberts-Satinsky | Venable LLP on 5/15/2013

On May 9, 2013, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) announced that they had entered into a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) concerning offshore safety and environmental regulations....more

A Look At Two Approaches To Oil And Gas Regulation

by Charles Sartain | Looper Reed & McGraw, P.C. on 5/14/2013

This is a tale of two regulatory schemes. First, there is the federal way, and I’m not making this up. First, there is the federal way, and I’m not making this up: In my last post we learned that if the BLM,...more

Courts To Rule On Wind Issues

by Bruce Goodman | Varnum LLP on 5/13/2013

Seventeen neighbors of the Consumers Energy Lake Wind Energy Park have filed a complaint in Mason County claiming the wind farm has negatively impacted property values and caused sleep disruption, headaches, ringing ears,...more

Boston Joins the Building Disclosure Bandwagon: Ordinance Will Require Reporting in 2014

by Seth Jaffe | Foley Hoag LLP - Environmental Law on 5/10/2013

On May 8, the Boston City Council approved an ordinance requiring building owners to report annual energy and water use. The final ordinance is slightly different from the one about which we posted in February. Highlights...more

DISPUTE RESOLUTION: Oil & Gas Litigation: New Decision May Impede Fracking on Federal Land

by King & Spalding on 5/10/2013

Recently, a California federal court blocked drilling on certain federal land located in California’s Monterey Shale Formation play. In reaching its decision, the court relied heavily on perceived risks of fracking, holding...more

Aboriginal Law – The Crown’s Duty to Consult and the Involvement of Natural Resources Proponents in the Consultation Process

by Anne-Marie Dupont, Simon Ruel | Heenan Blaikie LLP on 5/10/2013

Natural resources proponents are often deeply involved in consultations with Aboriginal communities that may be affected by their projects. How far can the Crown delegate its constitutional duty to consult Aboriginal people...more

N.Y. Appellate Division Affirms Zoning Ordinance Banning Hydraulic Fracturing

by Martin Eide, Earl L. Hagström, Gregory Lahr | Sedgwick LLP on 5/9/2013

Sedgwick’s Hydraulic Fracturing Task Force has been watching the ongoing litigation involving hydraulic fracturing (fracking) bans in the towns of Dryden and Middlefield, N.Y. In February 2012 we reported on the Supreme...more

Fracking Stymied On Federal Lands In California

by Charles Sartain, Brooke Sizer | Looper Reed & McGraw, P.C. on 5/9/2013

In an opinion with as many acronyms as the Dallas Cowboys have draft-pick detractors, a California federal court in Center For Biological Diversity v. Bureau of Land Management, held that the BLM violated the National...more

Aboriginal Consultation Levy Act Introduced into the Alberta Legislature

by Shawn Denstedt Q.C., Suzanne MacMillan, Terri-Lee Oleniuk | Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP on 5/9/2013

On May 8, 2013, Alberta’s Aboriginal Relations Minister introduced Bill 22, the Aboriginal Consultation Levy Act, into the Legislature in an effort to provide Aboriginal groups in Alberta with the capacity and funding...more

Climate Change Legal Work: Changing The Paradigm Does Not Come Easily

by J. Wylie Donald | McCarter & English: Climate Change &... on 5/9/2013

I learned the other day that for $3995 I can download nearly a 1000 page report on the climate change industry. The Ah Hah moment was at hand. The President’s promise at his inauguration and then again at the State of the...more

Federal Court Provides Guidance on Adequacy of Consultation About Environmental Assessments of Major Resource Projects

by Jeremy Barretto, Thoma Gelbman, Suzanne MacMillan | Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP on 5/8/2013

On April 23, 2013, the Federal Court of Canada released its decision dismissing an application commenced by the Conseil des Innus de Ekuanitshit (the Applicant) to judicially review the Order in Council (OIC) issued on the...more

CPUC Seeks to Revisit Controversial Decision on CEQA Process for Telecommunications Projects - Public Agency Participation is...

by Gail A. Karish, Charity B. Schiller | Best Best & Krieger LLP on 5/7/2013

After a pause of more than a year, the CPUC has revived its effort to determine whether and how it will conduct environmental review of certain telecommunications projects under the California Environmental Quality Act...more

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Environmental Law › Energy & Utilities Law › Zoning, Planning & Land Use