Zoning, Planning & Land Use, Environmental Law

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

The Direction of CEQA “Reform” Under Proposed SB 731: One Step Up and Three Steps Back?

by Arthur F. Coon | Miller Starr Regalia on 5/20/2013

There has been a lot of buzz around proposed SB 731, which is working its way through the State Legislature and will be heard Monday, May 20, in the Senate Appropriations Committee. Notwithstanding the hype and hopes, I think...more

Canada’s Supreme Court Requires Aboriginal Groups to Follow Statutory Process

by Elizabeth Coyle, Thoma Gelbman, Maureen Killoran | Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP on 5/17/2013

On May 9, 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada released its decision in Behn v. Moulton Contracting Ltd., 2013 SCC 26, affirming that Aboriginal groups seeking to challenge the validity of permits or authorizations granted to...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

The EPA Reaches Back in Time: Appeals Court Allows Government to Veto 404 Permits Issued Years Earlier

by James Potter | Nexsen Pruet, PLLC on 5/16/2013

Both public and private landowners have to obtain Section 404 discharge permits for the discharge of dredged materials from navigable waters. The Army Corps of Engineers is the permitting authority for the Section 404...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

U.S. Fish And Wildlife Service Proposes Limited Exception To Endangered Species Act Protections For Lesser Prairie-Chicken

by Ashley Remillard | Nossaman LLP on 5/14/2013

On May 6, 2013, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) proposed a limited exception to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections currently being considered for the lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus)....more

New Stormwater Fees in Maryland

by Matthew Kimball | Niles, Barton & Wilmer, LLP on 5/14/2013

During the 2012 legislative session, the Maryland General Assembly passed HB 987, a bill which mandated that the ten separate EPA-licensed storm sewer system (“MS4”) jurisdictions in Maryland (Baltimore City and nine...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

Changes to First Nations Consultation in Alberta

by Wally Braul, Kelly Bray, David Macaulay, Shawn Munro, Cassia Prentice | Bennett Jones LLP on 5/13/2013

On April 2, 2013, Alberta released a draft of The Government of Alberta's Policy on Consultation with First Nations on Land and Natural Resource Management, 2013 (the "Draft Policy"). The Government's deadline for comments on...more

Public Agency May Begin Eminent Domain Proceedings Before Completing CEQA Review, But May Not Actually Acquire The Property Until...

by William T. Chisum, Jon E. Goetz, Jeffrey L. Massey, Leslie Z. Walker | Kronick, Moskovitz, Tiedemann & Girard on 5/13/2013

A racetrack landowner challenged a regional park district’s plan to condemn part of the property for construction of a bayside trail, asserting that the park district was required under eminent domain law and the California...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

Industry and Developers Affected by Changes to South Carolina’s General Permit for Stormwater Discharges from Construction...

by James Potter | Nexsen Pruet, PLLC on 5/10/2013

The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC) has been delegated authority by the EPA to regulate stormwater discharges due to construction activities. An earlier 2006 General Permit is expiring...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

Towards Not Reinventing The CEQA Wheel: Resources Agency Adopts New CEQA Guidelines For Streamlined Review of Urban Infill...

by Arthur F. Coon, Matthew Henderson | Miller Starr Regalia on 5/9/2013

Repetitive CEQA review and analysis is expensive, unnecessary, unproductive, and inimical to the goals of certainty and finality in the environmental review process. In 2011, to address these concerns in the infill...more

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Zoning, Planning & Land Use › Environmental Law