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
During recent Senate hearings pertaining to energy and appointment made by the Biden administration to the United States Department of Energy, some of the most interesting questions have been asked by Senator John Kennedy of...more
On May 26, the Illinois legislature passed comprehensive carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration (CCUS) legislation. CCUS involves the capture of carbon dioxide directly from ambient air or uses processes to separate...more
Indiana is the most recent state to build out a regulatory structure in anticipation of significant carbon capture, utilization and sequestration (CCUS) project deployment. Last week, Governor Eric Holcomb signed into...more
Senator Manchin recently released the text of his much anticipated and controversial bill aimed at reforming the federal permitting process, particularly for energy infrastructure (the "Energy Independence and Security...more
On July 26, 2022, the Energy Regulatory Commission (“CRE”) published a preliminary draft of new “General Administrative Provisions that establish the requirements for the filing of applications, updates, modifications and...more
On March 24, 2022, the Department of the Army and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (“Corps”) (collectively “Army”) announced their intent to publish a Notice (the “Notice”) in the Federal Register initiating a formal review...more
Historically, environmental issues have been front and center for major project development throughout the world. But for projects in the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) increased focus on the...more
It has long been recognized that minority and disadvantaged communities are subject to higher levels of pollution than more affluent non-minority areas. This fact is the basis of the need for Environmental Justice to ensure...more
The Sierra Club and other environmental organizations filed a Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief (“Complaint”) in the United States District Court for the District of Montana against the United States Army Corps...more
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers published in the Federal Register changes to its Clean Water Act Nationwide Permits (NWPs). The final rule, published on January 13, 2021, reissues 12 existing NWPs and issues four new NWPs....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
U.S. Shale Producers Race for Federal Permits Ahead of Presidential Election - "Federal permitting in the largest U.S. oilfield in the Permian Basin, located in Texas and New Mexico, is up 80 percent in about the last three...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
The Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment – Division of Environmental Quality (“DEQ”) and the Ouachita River Joint Pipeline permittees (“Joint Pipeline”) entered into a July 29th Consent Administrative Order (“CAO”)...more
As discussed previously in Pierce Atwood’s Energy Infrastructure Blog, on June 3, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit vacated an air permit issued by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection...more
The U.S. Supreme Court delivered near-term relief to project developers on June 6, reinstating one of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ key nationwide Clean Water Act permits in U.S. Army Corps of Eng’rs v. Northern Plains...more
The United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit (“Court”) in a June 3rd opinion vacated an air permit the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (“DEP”) issued to Algonquin Gas Transmission (“Algonquin”). See...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit recently vacated an air permit issued by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for the construction of a new compressor station proposed by Algonquin...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
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
Cancelled Teck Oil Sands Project Underscores Global Climate-Energy Policy Tension - "The Frontier project became the latest casualty in oil-producing countries with robust environmental movements agitating to cut...more
Adding another chapter to the legal controversies that continue to rage over the siting of new gas pipelines, on September 10, 2019 the Third Circuit upheld the State of New Jersey’s sovereign immunity objection to the...more
Court Ruling Vindicates ExxonMobil in New York ‘Climate Change’ Fraud Case - “'The Office of the Attorney General failed to prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that ExxonMobil made any material misstatements or...more
The Sierra Club and several other organizations (collectively “Sierra Club”) filed a Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief (“Complaint”) in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington...more
In May 2019, National Grid – the utility company that provides natural gas to approximately 1.8 million customers in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Long Island – announced a moratorium on the processing of applications...more