On-Demand Webinar | Linear Infrastructure Redux: Adapting Your Projects to Meet the New Regulatory Climate
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
On August 11, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit granted partial vacatur of an appeal brought by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) challenging a district court decision to vacate and enjoin use of...more
Linear infrastructure projects, including oil and gas pipelines, electric transmission lines and transportation, have faced a number of regulatory challenges over the last year. Some of these challenges stem from changes in...more
Recent news that the Democrats flipped both U.S. Senate seats in Georgia’s run-off election means that the Democrats have enough votes to add the Congressional Review Act (CRA)[1] to the tools that could be used to advance...more
News stories and campaign rhetoric frequently create expectations of immediate shifts following an administration change, but most changes in the federal government happen slowly, and the constraint on resources and time...more
On January 5, 2021, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (“Army Corps”) released a pre-publication version of its final rule reissuing and modifying a subset of its suite of nationwide permits (“NWPs”), including those used for...more
On September 15, 2020, the Army Corps of Engineers (“Corps”) released a notice of proposed rulemaking to modify and reissue its existing Nationwide Permits (“NWPs”) and is accepting public comments through November 16, 2020....more
The Army Corps of Engineers issued a prepublication version of its Proposal to Reissue and Modify Nationwide Permits (NWPs) on August 3, 2020. The proposal would reissue all 52 existing nationwide permits, some with...more
This is Part 4 in a five-part series addressing the latest changes in legal standards regulating water resources in the United States. Part 4 addresses the fallout from recent decisions in a lawsuit over the Keystone XL...more
Update 7/16/2020: On July 6, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court significantly narrowed the scope of the District Court’s injunction by staying the order except as applied to the Keystone XL pipeline, pending resolution of the...more
On July 6, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court granted in part and denied in part the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ application for stay of the order issued by the U.S. District Court of Montana....more
Update June 17, 2020: On June 15, 2020, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers filed an application to the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay of the April 15, 2020, order (amended May 11, 2020) issued by the U.S. District Court of...more
Update May 29, 2020: On May 28, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued an order denying the appellants’ emergency motions for a partial stay of the district court’s April 15, 2020, and May 11, 2020,...more
A permitting program that is important to developers and environmentalists is in turmoil after a series of judicial actions in the Keystone XL Pipeline case. ...more
Two recent cases have the potential to dramatically alter the state of permitting and enforcement under the federal Clean Water Act (“CWA”) with far reaching implications to energy infrastructure project proponents and the...more
Bricker & Eckler and Hull & Associates will discuss the potential impacts and outcomes of recent activities in the area of surface water permitting. Specifically, we will be addressing the court ruling in Northern Plains...more
On Monday, the United States District Court for the District of Montana issued an order amending its previous grant of summary judgment in Northern Plains Resource Council v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The original order...more
Yesterday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit the decision of a lower court to vacate nationwide permit 12 (NWP 12) until the Corps completes...more
On Monday, the United States District Court for the District of Montana issued an order amending its previous order, which had invalidated nationwide permit 12 (NWP 12) on the basis that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers...more
In a hotly anticipated ruling on May 11, the federal district court that just a few weeks ago stunned and stalled a wide range of industries by vacating the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (“Corps”) Nationwide Permit (“NWP”)...more
The Sierra Club filed suit on May 1, 2020, in federal district court in Texas arguing that Kinder Morgan’s Permian Highway pipeline should not go forward because the foundational permit is now void. The $2.2 billion Permian...more
On April 15, 2020, in response to a challenge by environmental groups connected with opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline, a federal trial court in Montana issued a decision that may affect pipeline and electric...more
In a case brought by a coalition of environmental groups opposed to the Keystone XL Pipeline project, Judge Brian Morris of the U.S. District Court for Montana issued a ruling on April 15 nullifying Nationwide Permit (NWP)...more
On April 15, in a case challenging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (“Corps”) Nationwide Permit (“NWP”) 12, a federal court in the District of Montana determined that the Corps’ 2017 reissuance of NWP 12 was arbitrary and...more