News & Analysis as of

National Environmental Policy Act Bureau of Land Management

Dorsey & Whitney LLP

D.C. Circuit Court Upholds Mill Site Claim Rule Critical to Mining Projects in the United States

Dorsey & Whitney LLP on

Earlier this summer, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals issued a decision affirming the lower court’s decision that the Mining Law of 1872 does not impose a limit on the number of mill sites that a mining claimant may...more

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

Subsidence from Geothermal Operations: Navigating the Regulatory Landscape and Potential Claims

The subsidence risk in geothermal projects needs to be effectively managed by careful review of site conditions and legal and permitting precedents. Production of geothermal fluids can lead to subsidence of the land...more

Womble Bond Dickinson

Permitting Reform in the United States

Womble Bond Dickinson on

This article is part of Womble Bond Dickinson’s Energy & Natural Resources thought leadership series titled Striking the Balance: Permitting Reforms for Mining and the Energy Transition. In this series, we’ll explore the...more

Dorsey & Whitney LLP

Interagency Working Group on Mining Laws, Regulations, and Permitting Release Final Report on Proposed U.S. Mining Reforms on...

Dorsey & Whitney LLP on

In the Fall of 2023, the Interagency Working Group on Mining Laws, Regulations, and Permitting (“IWG”) released its final report containing recommendations to reform how mining is conducted on public lands (the “Final...more

Holland & Hart LLP

Conservation Plans for Old-Growth Forests May Affect National Forest Permitting

Holland & Hart LLP on

The United States Forest Service (“Forest Service”) recently announced plans to amend all its land management plans for National Forest System units, affecting 128 plans in total. The Forest Service did so in a scoping notice...more

Snell & Wilmer

Congress Holds Oversight Hearing Regarding the Antiquities Act and the Bureau of Land Managements Proposed Rule on Conservation...

Snell & Wilmer on

On Wednesday, May 24, 2023, the Oversight & Investigations Subcommittee of the House Committee on Natural Resources held a hearing titled “Examining the Biden Administration’s Efforts to Limit Access to Public Lands.” In...more

Foley Hoag LLP - Environmental Law

Does Environmental Review of Projects Needed for a Net-Zero Economy Lead to a Death By a Thousand Cuts?

Earlier this week, the decision in Bartell Ranch v. McCullough generally supported the Bureau of Land Management’s review under NEPA and related statutes of a lithium mine near Thacker Pass, Nevada. If approved, Thacker Pass...more

Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard,...

Endangered Species Act/National Environmental Policy Act: Federal Appellate Court Addresses Challenge to Bureau of Land Management...

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (“Ninth Circuit”) addressed in a November 25th Memorandum a judicial challenge to the United States Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) North Landscape Project (“North...more

Foley Hoag LLP - Environmental Law

NEPA Is Indeed Posing a Really Big Obstacle to Coal Mining On Public Lands

On Friday, I posted about a decision invalidating BLM Resource Manage Plans for failure to comply with NEPA.  My caption was “NEPA Is Still Going to Pose an Obstacle to Leasing Public Lands for Fossil Fuel Extraction.”...more

Foley Hoag LLP - Environmental Law

NEPA Is Still Going to Pose an Obstacle to Leasing Public Lands for Fossil Fuel Extraction

Earlier this month, Chief Judge Brian Morris made clear that NEPA remains a powerful weapon against the leasing of public lands for fossil fuel extraction. It’s déjà vu all over again for the projects at issue. In 2018,...more

Latham & Watkins LLP

Bureau of Land Management Issues Guidance on Authorizing Carbon Sequestration on Public Land

Latham & Watkins LLP on

The guidance sends a signal that carbon capture and sequestration remains a focus of the current administration’s decarbonization efforts. On June 8, 2022, the US Department of the Interior’s (Interior) Bureau of Land...more

Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard,...

National Environmental Policy Act: Council on Environmental Quality Issues "Phase 1" Rule

The White House Council on Environmental Quality (“CEQ”) issued an April 19th final rule that amends certain provisions of its regulations for implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”). ...more

Goldberg Segalla

Ranchers, Environmentalists, and Indigenous Communities Lock Arms Against Homegrown Lithium

Goldberg Segalla on

Thanks to the streaming mega hit Yellowstone, and perhaps Kim and Kayne’s brief stint in Wyoming, the West is no longer reserved for John Wayne wanna-bes and would-be snowboarders or adventurers looking to escape metropolis....more

Lewis Roca

Bureau of Land Management Updates Its Mitigation Policies

Lewis Roca on

Late last month, the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) issued Instruction Memorandum 2021-046 to reinstate both BLM Manual Section (MS-1794) and BLM Handbook (H-1794-1), which restore previously rescinded BLM policies on...more

Holland & Hart LLP

Biden Administration Issues Temporary Suspension of BLM/BIA Approvals

Holland & Hart LLP on

The day after the inauguration, the Acting Secretary of Interior issued Order No. 3395, Temporary Suspension of Delegated Authority, suspending the delegation of authority to all Department of Interior Bureaus and Offices,...more

WilmerHale

Biden Administration Begins Comprehensive Review of Trump-Era Environmental Rules

WilmerHale on

On his first day in office, President Joe Biden issued an Executive Order titled “Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis.” The Executive Order directs the Environment...more

Bracewell LLP

Changes to Expect in Environmental Litigation Under Biden

Bracewell LLP on

One thing is certain about 2021 – environmental and natural resources-related litigation against the federal government will continue apace and it will impact a range of private projects that require federal authorization of...more

Perkins Coie

Ninth Circuit Clarifies When Uncertainty Requires an Environmental Impact Statement

Perkins Coie on

A federal agency is not required to prepare an environmental impact statement for an action with uncertain environmental effects if the agency reasonably predicts that the effects will not be significant based on available...more

WilmerHale

Public Lands Management in the Biden Era

WilmerHale on

As the 2020 presidential campaign made clear, President-elect Biden plans to usher in a sharp shift in policy priorities across the federal government. We anticipate significant changes in the management of federal public...more

Hogan Lovells

The future of public lands under the Biden Administration

Hogan Lovells on

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

Pillsbury - Gravel2Gavel Construction & Real...

A Court-Side Seat: Butterflies, Salt Marshes and Methane All Around

Our latest summary of some recent developments in the courts and the federal agencies includes a unique case involving salt marshes adjacent to San Francisco Bay....more

Perkins Coie

BLM’s Lease of Lands in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve Using Programmatic-Level EIS Did Not Violate NEPA

Perkins Coie on

The Ninth Circuit held that a 2012 Environmental Impact Statement that provided a programmatic-level analysis for management of lands in the Alaska National Petroleum Reserve could also be used as the site-specific analysis...more

Allen Matkins

California Environmental Law & Policy Update - July 2020 #3

Allen Matkins on

EPA limits states’ power to review projects that affect water quality - Bullet Courthouse News Service – July 13 - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Monday issued a new 401 Certification Rule under the...more

Farella Braun + Martel LLP

Permitting Utility-Scale Battery Energy Storage Projects: Lessons From California

The increasing mandates and incentives for the rapid deployment of energy storage are resulting in a boom in the deployment of utility-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS). In the first installment of our series...more

Vinson & Elkins LLP

District Court Upholds BLM Rollback Of 2015 Hydraulic Fracturing Rule

Vinson & Elkins LLP on

On March 27, 2020, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted the Bureau of Land Management’s (“BLM”) motion for summary judgment, upholding the agency’s decision to rescind, or roll back,...more

76 Results
 / 
View per page
Page: of 4

"My best business intelligence, in one easy email…"

Your first step to building a free, personalized, morning email brief covering pertinent authors and topics on JD Supra:
*By using the service, you signify your acceptance of JD Supra's Privacy Policy.
- hide
- hide