Recent Updates to Federal Environmental and Natural Resource Regulations
On-Demand Webinar | Linear Infrastructure Redux: Adapting Your Projects to Meet the New Regulatory Climate
In companion rulings favoring offshore wind developers and federal agencies, the First Circuit Court of Appeals recently affirmed rulings issued by the District Court (D. Mass.) and dismissed challenges brought by two...more
Tomorrow, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) will publish its final rule updating regulations implementing section 10 of the Endangered Species Act (Section 10), which addresses the agency’s issuance of incidental...more
On March 18, three advocacy organizations and their members filed a lawsuit challenging an offshore wind project against the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). The...more
In January, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) and the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) announced a new cooperative agreement to allocate $12.4 million in Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program (RFSI)...more
On Thursday, October 12, 2023, Judge Indira Talwani of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts granted summary judgment in favor of the United States Department of the Interior and Vineyard Wind, and denied...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
On July 10, Governor Newsom signed five California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) reform bills (SB 145, 146, 147, 149 & 150) as part of an infrastructure streamlining plan that the Governor’s office has called the “the...more
Governor Gavin Newsom announced proposed major new infrastructure permitting reforms on May 19, 2023 in an effort to create thousands of jobs and build California’s clean energy future. The eleven-bill package seeks to...more
On Wednesday, May 17, 2023, the federal District Court for the District of Massachusetts granted summary judgment in favor of the United States Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (“BOEM”) and Vineyard Wind, and denied summary...more
Reversing the district court, a divided panel of the Ninth Circuit held that that the Bureau of Reclamation and a local water agency have discretion to release water from Twitchell Dam on the Santa Maria River on the Central...more
New York Bight Lease Sale Under Attack - A New Jersey-based nonprofit organization, Save Long Beach Island, and its president sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in January 2022. They are asserting...more
Last Friday, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California issued an order on competing motions in the coordinated cases challenging the 2019 biological opinions (BiOps) that govern operation of California’s...more
As drought conditions intensify throughout the western United States, water allocation and procurement continue to be contentious issues. While the problem is easily identified—demand keeps increasing, but supply is...more
After passage in both houses of Congress, the highly-anticipated $1.2 trillion infrastructure legislation package, more commonly referred to as the “Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act” (“Act”), has headed to President...more
The Chairman of the United States House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Peter DeFazio (“Chairman”), sent an October 13th letter to the Biden Administration addressing Section 404 Clean Water...more
Interest in US offshore wind development is at an all-time high, as the Biden Administration and lawmakers continue to create renewable energy project incentives and opportunities, shareholders demand action from companies to...more
Linear infrastructure projects, including oil and gas pipelines, electric transmission lines and transportation, have faced a number of regulatory challenges over the last year. Some of these challenges stem from changes in...more
This week, I published a post on the Center for California Water Resources Policy and Management’s DeltaCurrents blog discussing the role of conceptual ecological models in implementing the federal Endangered Species Act....more
On March 10, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld a biological opinion (BiOp) and incidental take statement (ITS) issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) in connection with a...more
President-elect Biden will assume office in January, 2021, with a divided nation, the global coronavirus pandemic, and a domestic energy market in a distressed state. The new administration will need to oversee the management...more
White House directs agencies to relax enforcement - Los Angeles Times – September 9 - A memorandum produced by the White House Office of Management and Budget and sent to federal agency heads last week instructs them to...more
A federal court recently struck down the Trump administration’s 2017 memorandum that had narrowly interpreted the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA or Act) to exclude incidental bird deaths....more
Two recent executive orders (“EOs”) issued by President Trump require additional efforts by federal agencies to facilitate regulatory reform and to expedite infrastructure projects, relying greatly on emergency and special...more
Linear infrastructure projects, including oil and gas pipelines, electric transmission lines and transportation, have faced a number of regulatory challenges in recent months. Some of these challenges stem from changes in...more