Recent Updates to Federal Environmental and Natural Resource Regulations
On-Demand Webinar | Regulatory Uncertainty and Linear Infrastructure Projects: Where Are We and What’s Ahead?
On-Demand Webinar | Linear Infrastructure Redux: Adapting Your Projects to Meet the New Regulatory Climate
On-Demand Webinar | The New NEPA Regulations: A Practical Guide to What You Need to Know
How Trump's Infrastructure Plan Impacts the Energy Industry
The Supreme Court of the United States announced on June 24, 2024, that it will review a case that could have major ramifications for the development of U.S. infrastructure projects. In Seven County Infrastructure Coalition...more
In this series of articles, your WBD team explores the pathways to finding a balance between responsible regulatory oversight and allowing mining projects for critical minerals to receive timely permitting approvals so they...more
On March 18, three advocacy organizations and their members filed a lawsuit challenging an offshore wind project against the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). The...more
Welcome to “CEQA News You Can Use,” a quarterly production of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP’s Natural Resources lawyers. This publication provides quick, useful bites of CEQA news, which we hope can be a resource to...more
This is a brief roundup of recent federal court environmental and regulatory law decisions from the federal courts over the past few months, including the much anticipated ruling in Sackett, et ux., v, Environmental...more
If “Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?” It’s been a quiet term thus far for the Supreme Court, due in part to the hearing of oral arguments in many contentious cases. Below is a brief summary of some of the recent...more
From Executive Orders to court decisions, the environmental regulatory landscape seems to be changing from day to day. Many of the changes will increasingly have impacts on the timing, placement and cost of construction and...more
For more than a century, since Winters v. United States, 207 U.S. 564 (1908), the Supreme Court has recognized that when the United States establishes a Native reservation, it impliedly reserves sufficient water rights to...more
New York Bight Lease Sale Under Attack - A New Jersey-based nonprofit organization, Save Long Beach Island, and its president sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in January 2022. They are asserting...more
Last week, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals again rejected a FERC NEPA review for failure to assess the climate impacts resulting from the downstream use of natural gas supplied by a gas pipeline upgrade project...more
Offshore wind development in the United States continues to draw opposition from coastal landowners, businesses, organizations, and other users of ocean waters, as it has since the industry first emerged here. However,...more
So CEQ has proposed to amend the NEPA regulations in order to eliminate some of the changes made by the Trump Administration in 2020. Important changes include: • explicit consideration of indirect impacts • renewed...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
Earlier this Month, Judge James Boasberg, who had previously ruled that the easement allowing construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline must be vacated due to a failure to comply with NEPA, nonetheless declined to issue an...more
On his first day in office on January 20, 2021, President Biden signed an Executive Order titled, “Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis” (the Order). The Order...more
JANUARY 2020 - FEDERAL APPELLATE COURTS - U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit - El Paso County, Texas, et al. v. Donald J. Trump, et al. On January 8, 2020, a divided panel of the court quickly granted a...more
One thing is certain about 2021 – environmental and natural resources-related litigation against the federal government will continue apace and it will impact a range of private projects that require federal authorization of...more
In September 2020, the Council on Environmental Quality enacted new regulations that set forth procedures federal agencies are to utilize when implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Numerous commentaries...more
Federal agencies to limit water pollution enforcement where states have taken action - Bullet The Hill – July 27 - The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday released a memorandom stating that it will not pursue...more
On July 16, 2020, President Trump’s Council on Environmental Quality (“CEQ”) published the long-awaited final rule revising the implementing regulations for the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”). 85 Fed. Reg. 43,304...more
Linear infrastructure projects, including oil and gas pipelines, electric transmission lines and transportation, have faced a number of regulatory challenges in recent months. Some of these challenges stem from changes in...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
Please join our interdisciplinary panel of infrastructure, environmental, real estate and eminent domain attorneys for a discussion on planning, procurement and financing strategies that can be implemented now to support...more