On June 19, 2019, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a final rule repealing the Obama-era “Clean Power Plan” (CPP) and replacing it with the “Affordable Clean Energy” (ACE) Rule. While both rules regulate...more
On March 29, 2019, the United States District Court for the District of Alaska issued its ruling in a case challenging a presidential executive order which would have reversed withdrawals of Outer Continental Shelf (OCS)...more
This is the eighth issue of WilmerHale’s 10-in-10 Hot Topics in Energy Series. Over the course of 10 weeks, our attorneys will share insights on current and emerging issues affecting the US energy sector. Attorneys from...more
4/1/2019
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Bureau of Land Management ,
Citizen Suits ,
Clean Air Act ,
Clean Power Plan ,
Common Law Claims ,
Deregulation ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Environmental Violations ,
FERC ,
Mercury ,
Methane ,
Obama Administration ,
Oil & Gas ,
Pipelines ,
Popular ,
RCRA ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Sierra Club ,
Strategic Enforcement Plan ,
Trump Administration ,
US Army Corps of Engineers ,
Utilities Sector ,
Waters of the United States
As in prior years, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 contains a variety of provision setting U.S. Department of Defense priorities for energy, environmental, and natural resource issues. These...more
3/13/2019
/ Department of Defense (DOD) ,
Energy Policy ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Policies ,
Federal Pilot Programs ,
National Security ,
Natural Disasters ,
Natural Resources ,
NDAA ,
Renewable Energy ,
Wildfires
On Tuesday, February 26, 2019, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to enact landmark legislation that promotes conservation, recreation, historical preservation and cultural resources across the country. The Natural...more
This is the fifth issue of WilmerHale’s 10-in-10 Hot Topics in Energy Series. Over the course of 10 weeks, our attorneys will share insights on current and emerging issues affecting the US energy sector. Attorneys from across...more
3/1/2019
/ Bilateral Investment Treaties ,
Business Disputes ,
Clean Energy ,
Clean Power Plan ,
Energy Sector ,
EU ,
Feed-in-Tariffs ,
Foreign Investment ,
International Arbitration ,
Mexico ,
NAFTA ,
Popular ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Taiwan ,
Tribunals
On February 14, 2019, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released an Action Plan for addressing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (collectively, PFAS), a group of chemical compounds that has been linked to negative...more
This is the third issue of WilmerHale’s 10-in-10 Hot Topics in Energy Series. Over the next 10 weeks, our attorneys will share insights on current and emerging issues affecting the US energy sector. ...more
2/15/2019
/ Clean Water Act ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Review ,
Forestry ,
Infrastructure ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Natural Gas ,
NEPA ,
Oil & Gas ,
PHMSA ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Transmission Grid ,
Trump Administration ,
Utilities Sector ,
Wildfires
This is the second issue of WilmerHale’s 10-in-10 Hot Topics in Energy Series. Over the next 10 weeks, our attorneys will share insights on current and emerging issues affecting the US energy sector. Attorneys from across...more
2/8/2019
/ Barack Obama ,
Bureau of Land Management ,
CEQ ,
Clean Air Act ,
Clean Power Plan ,
Climate Change ,
Deregulation ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Executive Orders ,
FERC ,
Fuel Standards ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
MATS ,
Methane ,
Oil & Gas ,
Regulatory History ,
Rescission ,
Trump Administration
In consideration of a request for a writ of certiorari in the cases County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund, No. 18-260 and Kinder Morgan Energy Partners v. Upstate Forever, No. 18-268, the US Supreme Court invited the views...more
1/11/2019
/ Clean Water Act ,
Discharge of Pollutants ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Groundwater ,
Kinder Morgan ,
Navigable Waters ,
NPDES ,
Petition for Writ of Certiorari ,
SCOTUS ,
Solicitor General
On November 29, WilmerHale held its second annual Women in Energy and Infrastructure - Powering the Future conference in Washington DC. The event and pre-conference dinner provided a forum for women thought leaders to discuss...more
After more than a year of sometimes contentious negotiations, the United States, Mexico, and Canada (the “Parties”) reached an agreement late Sunday night to revise the North American Free Trade Agreement (“NAFTA”)—renaming...more
10/8/2018
/ Agricultural Sector ,
Automotive Industry ,
Biologics ,
Canada ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Currency Manipulation ,
Exports ,
Free Trade Agreements ,
Imports ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) ,
Mexico ,
NAFTA ,
Procurement Guidelines ,
Sunset Provisions ,
Tariffs ,
Trade Relations ,
Trans-Pacific Partnership ,
Trump Administration ,
United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA)
On September 24, 2018, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that the Clean Water Act (CWA) does not require a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit for the discharges of pollutants to...more
The President is scheduled to sign the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (NDAA) on Monday, August 13 at a ceremony at Fort Drum, New York. Named for Senator John S. McCain (R-Ariz.), the bill authorizes...more
The National Defense Authorization Act (“NDAA”) may be the most important piece of energy and environmental legislation most people have never heard of. It authorizes the appropriation of federal funds to support the U.S....more
7/27/2018
/ Appeals ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Claims ,
Environmental Policies ,
FERC ,
Fracking ,
Market Manipulation ,
Natural Gas ,
Natural Resources ,
NDAA ,
Oil & Gas
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) (together, the “Services”) this week published proposed revisions to key portions of the Endangered Species Act’s (the “Act”)...more
The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) today published an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“Notice”) seeking public comment on a vast range of potential revisions to CEQ’s regulations implementing the National...more
On May 24, 2018, the House passed — and now the Senate is considering — the most important piece of energy and environmental legislation it will consider all year. It isn’t a revision to the Endangered Species Act or the...more
Negotiations to reshape the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) among the United States, Canada and Mexico have recently intensified as various factors—upcoming elections in Mexico in July and in the United States in...more
5/4/2018
/ Canada ,
Energy Sector ,
Free Trade Agreements ,
Infrastructure ,
Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) ,
Keystone XL Pipeline ,
Mexico ,
NAFTA ,
Oil & Gas ,
Trade Relations ,
Trump Administration ,
Wind Power
This is the fifth issue of WilmerHale's 10-in-10 Infrastructure Series. In this series, our attorneys share insights on current and emerging issues affecting infrastructure project developers in the United States....more
Awareness of the presence of contaminants of emerging concern (a.k.a. emerging contaminants) in public and private water supplies around the country has become a considerable focus of public officials and the general public....more
Last week, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the Clean Water Act (CWA) does not require that pollutants be discharged directly from a point source into navigable waters for liability to attach. In...more
The natural resource damage assessment (NRDA) process has evolved since its inception in the late 1970s. The innovations keep coming. In 2016, a third-party “credit banking” mechanism was used for the first time to settle...more
On January 22, 2018, the US Supreme Court unanimously held that challenges to the Obama-era Clean Water Rule, commonly referred to as the WOTUS Rule (for “waters of the United States”), must be filed in federal district...more
On December 1, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it will not promulgate a final rule requiring hardrock mining facilities (i.e., facilities for the extraction, beneficiation, and processing of metals...more