Recent Updates to Federal Environmental and Natural Resource Regulations
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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
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 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
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
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
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
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
The Center for Biological Diversity (“CBD”) filed a Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief (“Complaint”) in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona against the United States Environmental...more
The Western Environmental Law Center and Center for Biological Diversity (collectively “CBD”) filed a Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief (“Complaint”) in the United States District Court for the District of...more
The Center for Biological Diversity (“CBD”) and Kentucky Resources Council (collectively “CBD”) sent a 60-day Notice of Intent (“NOI”) to Sue the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (“Service”) and United States Army...more
Federal court rejects continued application of Trump-era water quality review rule pending adoption of alternative regulation - Courthouse News Service – October 22 - Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for...more
Selected federal regulatory actions taken or proposed by several federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency: EPA Actions. On September 15, 2021, EPA’s Water Office issued a memo rescinding a January...more
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (“Service”) issued a pre Federal Register publication proposing to remove the Snail Darter from the Federal Endangered Species Act (“ESA”) list of endangered and threatened...more
The Sierra Club and other environmental organizations filed a Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief (“Complaint”) in the United States District Court for the District of Montana against the United States Army Corps...more
The federal courts have issued some significant environmental law rulings in the past few days. THE U.S. SUPREME COURT - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service v. Sierra Club, Inc. On March 4, 2021, the court held that the...more
JANUARY 2020 - FEDERAL APPELLATE COURTS - U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit - El Paso County, Texas, et al. v. Donald J. Trump, et al. On January 8, 2020, a divided panel of the court quickly granted a...more
Recent news that the Democrats flipped both U.S. Senate seats in Georgia’s run-off election means that the Democrats have enough votes to add the Congressional Review Act (CRA)[1] to the tools that could be used to advance...more
This is Part 4 in a five-part series addressing the latest changes in legal standards regulating water resources in the United States. Part 4 addresses the fallout from recent decisions in a lawsuit over the Keystone XL...more