The Vital Importance of Pipeline and Transmission Infrastructure to Decarbonization - Energy Law Insights
Eminent Domain: First Principles, Kelo, and In Service of Infrastructure Buildout
On-Demand Webinar | Linear Infrastructure Redux: Adapting Your Projects to Meet the New Regulatory Climate
Nota Bene Episode 97: The Seismic Changes Renewables Are Bringing to Energy Transmission and Its Infrastructure with Mark Sundback
Policy Minute: TSA Cybersecurity Roadmap for Pipelines
On March 28, 2025, the D.C. Circuit denied a joint petition for review brought by Healthy Gulf and Sierra Club (together, “Petitioners”) challenging FERC’s grant of a certificate of public convenience and necessity (CPCN) to...more
In a landmark decision, a North Dakota jury has ordered Greenpeace to pay over $660 million in damages to Energy Transfer, the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). This verdict stems from Greenpeace’s involvement...more
Unitex WI, LLC v. CT Land & Cattle Co., LLC, No. 07-23-00390-CV, 2024 WL 3249338 (Tex. App.—Amarillo June 28, 2024, pet. filed)...more
On December 20, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“D.C. Circuit”) upheld FERC’s order authorizing Stingray Pipeline Company, L.L.C. (“Stingray”) to abandon a portion of its...more
The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (“Eighth Circuit”) addressed an interpretive dispute regarding a Surface Use Agreement (“SUA”) pertaining to oil and gas operations in a July 23rd opinion. See...more
Does a former working-interest owner of a well bear continuing responsibility for a defective gas line despite having conveyed its ownership interest? The line was constructed by the former owner as operator of record, and it...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
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review a case that will have far-reaching consequences for interstate pipeline projects. The case, PennEast Pipeline Co. v. New Jersey, involves a FERC-approved natural gas pipeline...more
Last week, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals affirmed vacatur of the easement issued to the Dakota Access Pipeline by the Army Corps of Engineers. As I noted last month in connection with the Biden Executive Order...more
...The absurdity of the current United States pipeline permitting process was on full display last week in two nearby states in the Upper Midwest. On Thursday, Enbridge, the Canadian pipeline company, received notice from...more
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) Environmental Appeals Board (“EAB”) addressed in a September 2nd Order a Petition filed by MPLX challenging a permit condition that the federal agency placed in a...more
On Wednesday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals stayed the injunction requiring the shutdown of the Dakota Access Pipeline. It’s a victory for the operator, Energy Transfer LP, simply because it lives to fight another day. ...more
Porter Hedges recently scored a significant victory for landowners Terrance and Kenneth Hlavinka and their families (“the Hlavinkas”) against HSC Pipeline Partners, a subsidiary of Enterprise Products Partners. On June 18,...more
Bricker attorneys Frank Merrill and Christine Rideout Schirra will be presenting 'Environmental Permitting Appeals and Pipeline Construction: Are the circuit courts the new environmental review courts?' for the Institute of...more
Yesterday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals refused the appellants’ request for a partial stay of the injunction recently issued against use of the Army Corps Nationwide Permit 12 for oil and gas pipeline projects...more
Last week, on May 13, 2020, the Army Corps of Engineers (the “Corps”) and TC Energy filed notices of appeal with the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit seeking an immediate stay of the Federal District...more
On Tuesday, February 25, 2020, the Fifth Appellate District invalidated Kern County’s 2015 Oil and Gas Ordinance (the “Ordinance”), which was intended to streamline the permitting process for a variety of oil and gas...more
In early February, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the “damaged goods” approach to valuing property crossed by a pipeline. In UGI Sunbury LLC v. A Permanent Easement For 1.7575 Acres et al., the appeals court...more
On January 31, 2020, the Texas Supreme Court (the “Court”) affirmed the 2017 judgment of the Dallas Court of Appeals that Texas law upholds the rights of contracting parties to agree not to be partners unless certain...more
In Energy Transfer Partners, L.P. v. Enter. Prods. Partners, L.P., one pipeline company sued another for breaching a duty of loyalty that allegedly arose out of a partnership to develop a pipeline. No. 17-0862, 2020 Tex....more
Disputes often arise over whether parties have agreed to, or by their conduct they have, committed themselves to a transaction. On January 31, 2020, the Texas Supreme Court delivered its decision in Energy Transfer Partners,...more
Following Supreme Court arguments last month, the final chapter in the long-running legal battle between Energy Transfer Partners LP (“ETP”) and Enterprise Products Partners (“Enterprise”) is finally coming to an end. ETP is...more
Federal Appeals Court Vacates Key Atlantic Coast Pipeline Permit - "A federal appeals court has pulled another permit issued to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, saying the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had fast-tracked the...more
On June 28, 2019, the Texas Supreme Court agreed to review a ruling from the Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas in the case of Energy Transfer Partners LP et al. v. Enterprise Products Partners LP et al, No. 529 S.W.3d 531...more
On May 24, 2019, a five-member panel of the British Columbia Court of Appeal (BCCA) unanimously determined that British Columbia's proposed amendments to the Environmental Management Act, SBC 2003, c 53 (the EMA) are...more