As referenced in last month’s publication, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of the Army (Army) will be hosting numerous separate listening sessions with key stakeholders starting next...more
4/22/2025
/ Clean Water Act ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Government Agencies ,
Proposed Rules ,
Public Comment ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Sackett v EPA ,
US Army Corps of Engineers ,
Waters of the United States
On March 20, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order (EO) directing his administration to immediately implement measures bolstering the production of America’s critical minerals, including uranium, copper, potash,...more
3/25/2025
/ Defense Production Act ,
Department of Defense (DOD) ,
Executive Orders ,
Exports ,
Federal Funding ,
Government Agencies ,
Imports ,
Investment ,
Mineral Exploration ,
Mining ,
National Security ,
Permits ,
Regulatory Reform ,
SBA ,
Supply Chain ,
Trump Administration
On March 12, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced that the agency is undertaking 31 significant actions in furtherance of the President’s Inaugural Day Executive Orders....more
The Waters of the United States (WOTUS) Rule is an ongoing conundrum to all those subject to it, most especially in trying to ascertain exactly which water ways qualify under the Rule. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency...more
National security is the focus of an Executive Order (EO) signed by President Donald J. Trump on February 25, 2025, entitled “Addressing The Threat To National Security From Imports of Copper.” As the EO asserts, copper is a...more
3/3/2025
/ Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) ,
Executive Orders ,
Imports ,
International Trade ,
National Security ,
Section 232 ,
Supply Chain ,
Tariffs ,
Trade Expansion Act of 1962 ,
Trump Administration ,
U.S. Commerce Department
“We will drill, baby, drill!”
This was an emphatic promise from President Donald J. Trump during his Inaugural Address on January 20, 2025; but also his campaign mantra that, in part, contributed to his electoral and...more
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has recently introduced a significant policy shift aimed at streamlining the permitting process for mineral projects on public lands....more
2/27/2025
/ Bureau of Land Management ,
Energy Policy ,
Environmental Policies ,
Government Agencies ,
Mining ,
NEPA ,
Permits ,
Regulatory Authority ,
Regulatory Reform ,
State and Local Government ,
Tribal Governments ,
Trump Administration
On February 11, 2025, the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Federal Lands, held an Oversight Hearing on “Restoring Multiple Use to Revitalize America’s Public Lands and Rural Communities.”...more
2/24/2025
/ Antiquities Act ,
Bureau of Land Management ,
Climate Change ,
Conservation ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Policies ,
Federal Land ,
FLPMA ,
Natural Resources ,
New Legislation ,
Proposed Legislation
President Donald J. Trump, in December 2017, discussed the number of regulations eliminated in his first Administration’s “far-reaching regulatory reform,” known as the “two-for-one rule.” Eleven months earlier, Trump had...more
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has recently introduced a significant policy shift aimed at streamlining the permitting process for mineral projects on public lands. With the launch of the new “pre-plan coordination”...more
1/23/2025
/ Bureau of Land Management ,
Compliance ,
Department of the Interior ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Review ,
Mining ,
NEPA ,
Permits ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Stakeholder Engagement
The Good Samaritan Remediation of Abandoned Hardrock Mines Act of 2024 (S. 2781) was signed into law on December 17, 2024, by President Joe Biden. This was a bipartisan measure consisting of 21 Republicans, 17 Democrats, and...more
A recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Earthworks v. U.S. Department of the Interior has important implications for mining companies operating on public lands. This ruling upholds the Bureau of...more
Yesterday, the United States Supreme Court curtailed the federal government’s powers to regulate private property under the auspices of the Clean Water Act (CWA). The Court in Sackett v. EPA held that “the CWA extends to...more
On April 3, 2023, the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) published a proposed rule to promote the conservation of the 245 million acres of public lands it manages. The proposal purports to advance “BLM’s mission to manage the...more
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) issued a Request For Applications (RFA) on January 10, 2023, for projects “supporting community-based nonprofit organizations (CBO’s) in their efforts to collaborate and...more
Further building upon its Environmental Justice (EJ) Legal Tools, on January 11, 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) released the Cumulative Impacts Addendum updating its existing legal guidance for...more
On May 5, 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice (“USDOJ”) announced the launch of a new comprehensive environmental justice (“EJ”) strategy. The three-prong strategy, as laid out by the U.S. Attorney General in an internal...more
On January 9, 2020, the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest (“ACLIPI”), on behalf of several individuals, filed with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (“Court”) a Petition for Review (“Petition”) of the United...more
In its June 25, 2021 Press Release, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“USEPA”) presented its plan for utilizing $50 million dollars, allocated to the agency under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021/Covid-19 stimulus...more
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (“USEPA”) Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (“OECA”) released July 1, 2021 guidance establishing a process on which it will rely upon to advance its’ Environment Justice...more
We all have been waiting to see what new course or approach will be taken by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“USEPA”) in regard to environmental justice. Rather than a major new program or enforcement initiative,...more
There is no question that the Coronavirus Disease 19 (“COVID-19”) pandemic has been taking its toll on public health, and it is doing so in more ways than some folks may be aware. Environmental programs which are instrumental...more
here is no shortage of dramatic, if not predictable, commentary in the wake of the Trump Administration’s release of its “Navigable Waters Protection Rule” (“Rule”) ranging from the indignant to the hyperbolic, and the...more
Opportunity for business in Arizona is booming. In a May 2019 ranking in Chief Executive Magazine, Arizona jumped to seventh best state to do business. Arizona is well known for its mineral deposits, but timber was once one...more
This week was a busy week at the Arizona State legislature. Several bills were dropped in order to meet deadlines placed by the federal government to have agreement on a drought contingency plan “DCP” by January 31,...more