Recent Updates to Federal Environmental and Natural Resource Regulations
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Updates to federal environmental and natural resource regulations and recent consequential decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court have resulted in a significant shift to the federal environmental and natural resource landscape...more
Companies in a wide range of industries are subject to the oversight of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA enforces numerous environmental laws, environmental regulations, and executive orders to...more
We're approaching the first anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision in Sackett v. EPA holding that, contrary to the view of EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers for the past 40 years, the Clean Water Act protects only...more
In a landmark decision, a federal court has ruled against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, determining that their approval of Florida’s takeover of the Clean Water Act wetlands...more
Over three years ago, the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gave Clean Water Act 404 permitting powers to the State of Florida. A few days ago, a judge at the U.S. District Court for the District of...more
“Error: 404 not found.” The dreaded message you see when you visit a website that no longer exists. A District of Columbia federal district court judge ended the existence of Florida’s “404 program” (for protection of federal...more
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Feb. 15, 2024, issued an order vacating the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) approval of the state of Florida's application to assume permitting authority...more
Judge Indira Talwani of the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts has rejected another challenge to federal permits and approvals for the Vineyard Wind Project (Vineyard Wind or the Project). Vineyard Wind is...more
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized a rule that will provide the agency, its partners, and the public with a dataset of certain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) manufactured and used in the...more
Bats in the Belfry and Water under the Bridge...New Federal Regulations Developers Need to Know - In recent months, the federal government has issued various regulations that developers need to consider before they...more
The Biden administration is restoring significant state and tribal authority over water resources and expanding their leverage on infrastructure permitting decisions, including for pipelines. With a final rule announced this...more
The United States District Court for the District of Arizona (“Court”) addressed in an August 18th Order an alleged violation by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) of the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”)....more
On August 10, 2023, the Department of Energy (“DOE”) issued a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (“NOPR”) proposing to establish an integrated Coordinated Interagency Transmission Authorizations Program (“CITAP Program”) that...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued an opinion on June 16, 2023, speaking to several important issues in administrative law. Confronting a challenge under the Endangered Species Act (ESA),...more
In Sackett v. EPA, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a massive blow to EPA's ability to regulate wetlands under the Clean Water Act ("CWA"). Addressing the "nagging question" about the reaches of the CWA, Justice Alito, joined...more
For the first time in modern history, the scope of federal regulation of wetlands and waters is strikingly clear . . . and narrow. In Sackett v. EPA, the U.S. Supreme Court drew the brightest and most narrow regulatory...more
On November 30, 2022, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) published a final rule reclassifying the northern long-eared bat under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), uplisting the bat from “threatened” to...more
On September 30, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit issued an opinion in Save the Colorado, et al. v. Spellmon. The case arose from various conservation group challenges to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers...more
U.S. Supreme Court leans toward limiting scope of Clean Water Act - U.S. News & World Report – October 3 - U.S. Supreme Court justices on October 3 appeared open to limiting the reach of the U.S. Environmental Protection...more
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (“Service”) issued a pre-Federal Register publication final rule removing the snail darter from the federal Endangered Species Act (“ESA”) List of Endangered and Threatened...more
The South Carolina Conservation League and three other environmental organizations filed an August 17th Complaint in the United States District Court (District of South Carolina) challenging the United States Army Corps of...more
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reverses changes to Endangered Species Act’s habitat rule - Associated Press - July 20 - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) on Wednesday canceled a Trump administration policy...more
Eighty-nine organizations (collectively “Coalition”)two sent letters, respectively, to United States Senators Merkley and Murkowski, and Congresswoman Pingree and Congressman Joyce urging their support to enable the U.S....more
On Wednesday, March 23, 2022, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (the Service) published a rule proposing to reclassify the northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis), a bat species found in all or portions of 37 U.S....more