On June 1, 2021, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) published a proposed rule in the Federal Register to list the lesser prairie-chicken under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
The proposal distinguishes between...more
On August 13, 2020, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued two rules (Policy Amendments and Technical Amendments) to roll back portions of its 2012 and 2016 New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for the Oil...more
On July 6, 2020, Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a ruling ordering that the Dakota Access Pipeline (the Pipeline) be shut down and emptied by August 5, 2020. The decision...more
On April 15, 2020, an order from the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana vacated a key general permit pipeline and utility project owners have used for decades to address Clean Water Act requirements, including...more
Two years ago, the EPA adopted the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) Subpart OOOOa (commonly known as the Methane Rule), which allowed the EPA – for the first time – to regulate directly the emissions of methane gas...more
9/14/2018
/ Appeals ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Methane ,
Moratorium ,
New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) ,
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) ,
Oil & Gas ,
Oil Wells ,
Proposed Amendments ,
Public Comment ,
Reversal ,
Stays ,
Vacated
Airlines for America and the National Propane Gas Association (“Petitioners”) filed a Petition for Rulemaking on February 1, 2018, asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) to extend its affiliate Standards of...more
2/14/2018
/ Affiliates ,
Airlines ,
Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Crude Oil ,
Declaratory Relief ,
FERC ,
Interstate Commerce ,
Natural Gas ,
Natural Gas Act ,
Petition for Rulemaking ,
Petroleum ,
Pipelines ,
Propane ,
Standard of Conduct
In a legal memorandum (the “Jorjani Memo”) issued on December 22, 2017, the U.S. Department of the Interior (“DOI”) concluded that the MBTA’s prohibition of taking migratory birds only applies to intentional take and does not...more
On April 11, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D. C. Circuit vacated a 2008 EPA rule, which had exempted certain agricultural operations from federal air emission reporting requirements...more
5/11/2017
/ Agricultural Sector ,
Air Pollution ,
Appeals ,
CERCLA ,
Chevron Deference ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
EPCRA ,
Exemptions ,
Farms ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Vacated
On Friday, January 6, 2017, the Texas Supreme Court issued its long-awaited decision in Denbury Green Pipeline-Texas v. Texas Rice Land Partners (“Texas Rice II”), reversing the 9th Court of Appeals and reinstating the trial...more
The EPA is moving forward with the second stage of the Climate Action Plan – regulation of methane emissions from the oil and gas industry. Even while the first stage in President Obama’s Climate Action Plan, the Clean Power...more
On September 30, 2015, the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming held that the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management ("BLM") did not have Congressional authority to promulgate and finalize hydraulic...more
On August 18, 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") released and asked for comments on a number of proposed rules affecting the oil and gas industry. While the methane emission regulations have received the...more
On March 26, 2015, the U.S. Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) published its final rule setting new standards for hydraulic fracturing on onshore federal and Indian lands. The final rule, as published in...more
4/7/2015
/ Bureau of Land Management ,
Chemical Compounds ,
Clean Air Act ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Federal Land ,
Fracking ,
Oil & Gas ,
Tribal Lands ,
Underground Injection Wells ,
Wastewater
On June 23, 2014, the Supreme Court, in a 5–4 decision,1 affirmed in part and reversed in part the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision regarding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ("EPA") greenhouse gas ("GHG")...more
On February 5, 2014, several news outlets reported that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") handed over permitting authority for greenhouse gases ("GHGs") to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality...more
Last week, in a 3-0 decision, the Railroad Commission of Texas ("Railroad Commission") overturned a Hearings Examiner's interim ruling that the Common Carrier Act does not apply to a pipeline transporting ethylene. In a case...more
On September 20, 2013, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) re-proposed its regulations to limit greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted from newly constructed power plants, known as the GHG New Source Performance Standards...more
Recently, the Texas Court of Appeals for the Ninth District at Beaumont issued two contrasting opinions which provide guidance for the application of the Texas Supreme Court's 2012 decision in Texas Rice Land Partners, Ltd....more