On-Demand Webinar | Charting a Course for Offshore Wind Energy in California
A federal court has thrown out key Endangered Species Act (ESA) analyses of oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico, which will be vacated as of Dec. 20, 2024. The United States District Court for the District of...more
Good afternoon! This is Akin’s newsletter on climate change policy and regulatory developments, providing information on major climate policy headlines from the past week and forthcoming climate-related events and hearings...more
New and additional bonding requirements for certain companies operating on the Outer Continental Shelf (“OCS”) will take effect in June as a result of a recent rulemaking. These new requirements will be phased in over a...more
The regulatory seascape for financial assurance related to offshore oil and gas production and decommissioning in federal waters has come in waves over the past decade, and like waves, the regulations often build momentum...more
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced its finalization of a rule substantially revising the financial assurance requirements applicable to offshore oil and gas operations. The final rule revises criteria for...more
For a decade, the U.S. Department of the Interior has wrestled with financial assurance (or bonding) requirements for offshore oil and gas companies. Over the last 10 years, the Interior Department has released – and later...more
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is preparing to announce new regulations governing soot — the particles that trucks, farms, factories, wildfires, power plants, and dusty roads generate. By law, the agency isn’t...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Nov. 14, 2023, dismissed claims brought by environmental groups challenging offshore oil and gas Lease Sale 261. The court ordered that the sale take place within 37 days of...more
The U.S. Department of the Interior on Sept. 29, 2023, announced its long-awaited Five-Year Offshore Leasing Plan as required by the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (the Plan)....more
After years of blunted growth and false starts, the US is finally scaling up offshore wind. While most progress had been spurred by state policies incenting projects in the Atlantic Ocean off the East Coast, the federal...more
On August 29th, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) held the first auction for offshore wind areas in the Gulf of Mexico. Sheppard Mullin’s preview of the auction can be accessed here...more
The Biden administration has proposed changes regarding when oil, gas, and sulfur lessees and certain other parties operating in the offshore Outer Continental Shelf must post additional bonds or other “supplemental financial...more
On June 29, 2023, the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) published a proposed rule that, if adopted, would substantially revise the financial assurance requirements applicable to offshore oil...more
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (“BOEM”) along with the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (“BSEE”) recently proposed changes to “modernize” financial assurance requirements for the offshore oil and gas...more
The U.S. Department of the Interior, through its Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), published a proposed rule on June 29, 2023, to significantly modify how the agency assesses the offshore oil and gas industry's...more
The negotiators and scriveners of the purchase and sale agreement in Matter of PetroQuest Energy, Incorporated would have been well served to have considered all the potential ramifications, however remote, flowing from the...more
The $437 billion Inflation Reduction Act, H.R. 5376 (IRA), signed into law on August 16, 2022, by President Biden, makes historic investments in clean energy. The IRA allocates $369 billion toward energy security, carbon...more
On July 1, 2022,1 the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (“BOEM”) released its Proposed Program for the U.S. Department of the Interior’s (“DOI”) National Outer Continental Shelf (“OCS”) Oil and Gas Leasing Program (“National...more
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
As more states continue to adopt and consider rules for renewable energy facility decommissioning, they do so against the backdrop of the existing federal financial assurance rules implemented by the Bureau of Land Management...more
The federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) directs decommissioning of facilities located in federal waters of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) that are used in performance of oil and gas exploration...more
On January 27, 2021, President Biden issued an executive order — effective immediately — directing the Secretary of the Interior to pause new oil and natural gas leases on federal public lands or offshore waters to the extent...more
On March 29, 2019, the United States District Court for the District of Alaska issued its ruling in a case challenging a presidential executive order which would have reversed withdrawals of Outer Continental Shelf (OCS)...more
A federal court recently prohibited the U.S. Department of the Interior from approving any plans or permits for offshore fracking off the California coast until it complies with the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the...more
On September 27, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued its long-awaited opinion in the case of U.S. v. Moss, et al. The Fifth Circuit affirmed the District Court’s ruling that the Outer Continental Shelf...more