Recent Updates to Federal Environmental and Natural Resource Regulations
On-Demand Webinar | Regulatory Uncertainty and Linear Infrastructure Projects: Where Are We and What’s Ahead?
On-Demand Webinar | Linear Infrastructure Redux: Adapting Your Projects to Meet the New Regulatory Climate
On-Demand Webinar | The New NEPA Regulations: A Practical Guide to What You Need to Know
How Trump's Infrastructure Plan Impacts the Energy Industry
The permitting process has been identified by numerous commentators as a major cause of delays in the development of energy, infrastructure, and mining projects in the United States. ...more
Welcome to Dorsey’s Energy Law: Month in Review. We provide this update to our clients to identify significant developments in the previous month. ...more
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
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
This week, the Ninth Circuit considers personal jurisdiction in a trademark declaratory judgment action and assesses an agency’s decision to omit an environmental-impact statement in connection with a forest-fire-management...more
In a move that could have far-ranging implications for projects that require federal permits and rulemaking across the entire federal government, the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality (“CEQ”) published interim...more
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
For more than a century, since Winters v. United States, 207 U.S. 564 (1908), the Supreme Court has recognized that when the United States establishes a Native reservation, it impliedly reserves sufficient water rights to...more
On December 10, 2021, the Biden Administration released the Fall 2021 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (Unified Agenda), which is a semi-annual compilation of information concerning regulations and policy...more
We interrupt our usual scrutiny of the courts to focus (mostly) on the important developments in notices and rulemaking issued by and concerning federal regulatory agencies and departments in the past several weeks....more
Late last week, newly confirmed Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Deb Haaland took two major steps to advance the Biden-Harris administration’s climate priorities and accelerate the shift to a clean energy future....more
The secretary of the interior issued two Secretarial Orders on April 16, 2021, that provide early indications of the Biden administration’s approach to the environmental review process for infrastructure projects under the...more
The first 100 days of a new administration can define what lies ahead for the next four years. Join our panel of Nossaman Environment & Land Use attorneys from across the U.S. on April 15, 2021 from 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. PT...more
Europe’s offshore wind sector enjoyed a record $31 billion of investment in 2020. The U.S has some serious work to do to catch up. While development of land-based wind and solar projects continues at a rapid pace across the...more
The Biden administration's Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad ("Executive Order") expands upon the Department of the Interior's Secretarial Order No. 3395 and indefinitely suspends the federal...more
Key Points - President Biden’s Day One Executive Order on climate action reconvenes an interagency working group to establish interim and final social costs of three GHGs: carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane. -...more
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
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
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
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
The EO directs federal agencies to invoke available emergency powers to expedite environmental review and permitting of infrastructure projects. A recent Executive Order by President Trump directs agencies to expedite...more
The Missouri Attorney General and Missouri Department of Natural Resources (collectively, “Missouri”) filed a Complaint in the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri on February 5th against: -...more
Yesterday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) released a pre-publication version of its long-awaited update to regulations governing Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) implementation (Proposed Regulations)....more
Trump Infrastructure Proposal Impacts 'Virtually Every' Federal Decision on Environment: DOI Secretary - "Trump's announcement focused largely on road and highway impacts, but industry groups and environmentalists note the...more
Focus - Environmental groups sue BLM over California drilling plan - Reuters – October 30 - The Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity this Wednesday sued the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) over...more