CCUS: Understanding The Class VI Permitting Process
Two individuals filed a Petition for Review (“Petition”) before the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) Environmental Appeals Board (“Board”) challenging an Underground Injection Control (“UIC”) Class II-D...more
Find out why underground natural gas storage can serve as a useful analog when developing large-scale carbon capture and sequestration projects....more
Stoel Rives’ Oil & Gas Team has been monitoring bills introduced by California legislators since the beginning of the 2019-2020 Legislative Session. Below is the latest update on a list of bills, summarized pursuant to the...more
The Center for Biological Diversity (“CBD”) sent a July 25th 60-day Notice of Intent to Sue (“Notice”) to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) alleging a violation of the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”). ...more
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) Environmental Appeals Board (“EAB”) addressed in an April 29th decision a challenge to an underground injection control (“UIC”) Class II Permit (“Permit”) that had...more
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) and Dart Oil & Gas Corporation (“Dart”) entered into a November 29th Consent Agreement and Final Order (“CAFO”) addressing alleged violations of certain underground...more
On February 1, 2018, the 9th Circuit issued its ruling in Hawai’i Wildlife Fund v. County of Maui that expands coverage under the Federal Clean Water Act (CWA) to discharges of contaminants to groundwater that travel through...more
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is poised to approve North Dakota’s application for primary enforcement authority over the underground injection of CO2 for geologic sequestration in that state. Nearly four...more
On January 21, 2017 the California Department of Conservation, Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (“DOGGR”) issued a Notice of Pre-rulemaking Public Comment Period for the development of updates to the regulations...more
As an update to our prior blog post, on January 17, 2017, the California Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (“DOGGR”) released a letter sent to notify the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) of...more
As reported in a previous blog post, Earthjustice, on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity (“CBD”), filed a lawsuit against the California Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources (“DOGGR”) in May 2015. The...more
Yesterday, Judge Scott Skavdahl of the District of Wyoming held that the Bureau of Land Management did not have authority to regulate the environmental impacts of fracking. I think Judge Skavdahl probably got it right, but I...more
June 3, 2016 was the final deadline for oil- and gas-related bills introduced in the 2015-2016 legislative session to move through their house of origin. Below is a summary of those bills, many of which relate to natural gas...more
On March 20, Senator Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills) wrote a letter to Governor Jerry Brown requesting that his administration immediately shut down approximately 2,500 underground injection wells. The letter was signed by...more
On Thursday, April 2, the California Department of Conservation (“DOC”) published a notice of proposed emergency rulemaking for the state’s Class II Underground Injection Control (“UIC”) program. The purpose of the...more
On Tuesday, March 3, twelve underground injection control (“UIC”) wells in California’s Central Valley, specifically in Kern County, were shut down in order to protect subsurface drinking water from potential contamination. ...more
California Assemblymember Das Williams (D-Carpinteria) has introduced an oil and gas bill to ensure that the state comes into compliance with the Class II underground injection (“UIC”) requirements under the federal Safe...more
On Friday, February 6, California’s Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources (“DOGGR”) published a letter to the US Environmental Protection Agency (“USEPA”) addressing issues with California’s Class II Oil and Gas...more
On Friday, July 18, 2014, the Department of Conservation’s Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (“DOGGR”) announced that it will review California’s Underground Injection Control (“UIC”) Program to ensure compliance...more