On April 17, 2025, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) (collectively, Services) published a notice in the Federal Register proposing to rescind the Services’ respective...more
On March 29, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas (District Court) vacated the Endangered Species Act (ESA) special 4(d) rule for the northern distinct population segment (DPS) of the lesser...more
Just two months into President Trump’s second term, project applicants are navigating a series of changes to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (Corps) Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 404 permitting. Upon his inauguration, President...more
Ever since the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit declared in Marin Audubon that the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) had no authority to issue binding National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations,...more
2/24/2025
/ CEQ ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
En Banc Review ,
Environmental Policies ,
Executive Orders ,
National Park Service ,
National Parks ,
NEPA ,
Regulatory Authority ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Rulemaking Process
On January 20, 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order 14154, “Unleashing American Energy,” which requires all agencies to identify actions that potentially burden deployment of domestic energy resources and develop...more
In the two weeks following his second-term inauguration, President Donald Trump issued dozens of executive orders, many of which focus on energy independence and streamlining governmental approvals. The long-term...more
2/4/2025
/ Clean Water Act ,
Department of Energy (DOE) ,
Department of Transportation (DOT) ,
Endangered Species Act (ESA) ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Policies ,
Executive Orders ,
NEPA ,
Oil & Gas ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Renewable Energy
Since January 20, 2025, there have been a number of executive orders and agency guidance and memoranda that have the potential to impact a wide range of industries nationwide. While the full impact of these actions is not yet...more
On January 20, 2025, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (Service) will publish a positive 90-day finding on a 2016 petition (Petition) to delist the golden-cheeked warbler (Setophaga chrysoparia) (GCWA). The decision comes on...more
On January 7, 2025, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) announced that, following the completion of the Service’s 5-year status review (5-year Review) of the golden-cheeked warbler (Setophaga chrysopharia) (GCWA),...more
On December 10, 2024, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) released its long-anticipated listing proposal for the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus), along with a proposed critical habitat designation and...more
In a sign of the times, both petitioners and respondents filed petitions for rehearing en banc of the recent decision of a split panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that held that the Council on...more
Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) announced it had opened status reviews for 38 species of plants, wildlife, and fish endemic to Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona (Southwest Species). Section 4(c) of the...more
On November 12, 2024, a divided (2-1) panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued a ruling invalidating the Council on Environmental Quality’s (CEQ) National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations...more
On September 5, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas held in General Land Office v. U.S. Department of the Interior, that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) improperly denied a petition to...more
On September 4, 2024, the Center for Biological Diversity, along with more than 20 other groups, (collectively, CBD) delivered a petition (Petition) to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) in which CBD requested the...more
Updates to federal environmental and natural resource regulations and recent consequential decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court have resulted in a significant shift to the federal environmental and natural resource landscape...more
Updates to federal environmental and natural resource regulations and recent consequential decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court have resulted in a significant shift to the federal environmental and natural resource landscape...more
8/1/2024
/ Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act ,
Clean Water Act ,
Endangered Species Act (ESA) ,
Energy Projects ,
Environmental Policies ,
Federal Land ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Natural Resources ,
NEPA ,
Permits ,
Webinars
This is the fifth in a series of six eAlerts on the Bipartisan Permitting Reform Implementation Rule published in the Federal Register on May 1, 2024 (Final Rule) by the Council for Environmental Quality (CEQ). The Final Rule...more
6/5/2024
/ CEQ ,
Climate Action Plan ,
Climate Change ,
Environmental Assessments ,
Environmental Impact Report (EIR) ,
Environmental Policies ,
Final Rules ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Infrastructure ,
NEPA ,
Real Estate Development ,
Regulatory Reform
This is the third in a series of six eAlerts on the Bipartisan Permitting Reform Implementation Rule published in the Federal Register on May 1, 2024 (Final Rule) by the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). The Final Rule...more
This is the second in a series of six eAlerts on the Bipartisan Permitting Reform Implementation Rule published in the Federal Register on May 1, 2024 (Final Rule) by the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). The Final Rule...more
On May 20, 2024, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) published a final rule listing the dunes sagebrush lizard (Scleroperus arenicolus) (DSL) as endangered (Final Rule) under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). In the...more
On May 1, 2024, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) published its final Bipartisan Permitting Reform Implementation Rule (Final Rule), that revises regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA),...more
Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) and Center for Biological Diversity entered into a settlement agreement wherein the Service agreed to submit to the Federal Register final listing decisions on the following...more
Tomorrow, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) will publish its final rule updating regulations implementing section 10 of the Endangered Species Act (Section 10), which addresses the agency’s issuance of incidental...more
4/11/2024
/ Conservation ,
Critical Habitat ,
Endangered Species ,
Endangered Species Act (ESA) ,
Environmental Policies ,
ESA Listings ,
Final Rules ,
Habitat Conservation Plan ,
Incidental Take Permits ,
Infrastructure ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
US Fish and Wildlife Service
In January 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Agencies) adopted a final rule altering the definition of "waters of the United States" (WOTUS), a key term that is referred to...more