The New Cold War: Risk, Sanctions, Compliance Episode 24: “Elephants and the Mafia: Combatting Criminal Wildlife Trafficking”
Elk Grove has settled a lawsuit with the state over a 67-unit supportive housing project the city denied, despite the fact that the city had recently approved a similar market-rate project. The lawsuit filed by Attorney...more
A federal court has thrown out key Endangered Species Act (ESA) analyses of oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico, which will be vacated as of Dec. 20, 2024. The United States District Court for the District of...more
California Senate Bill No. 174 (SB 174), a budget trailer bill that was passed by the Assembly with amendments on June 26, received Senate concurrence on the amendments the same day, and was enrolled and presented to the...more
Republican attorneys general from 20 U.S. states sued the Biden administration on Tuesday, seeking to block new reforms to the U.S. environmental review process for major projects such as transmission lines and wind and solar...more
Introduction - On March 15, 2024, the Sacramento County Superior Court found that the State Water Board’s substitute environmental document did not violate the Porter-Cologne Act, the California Environmental Quality Act...more
On February 28, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia upheld the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (Service) denial of a petition filed by the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association (Cattle Growers) urging...more
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Feb. 15, 2024, issued an order vacating the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) approval of the state of Florida's application to assume permitting authority...more
On February 2, 2024, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) published a final rule increasing civil monetary penalties for violations of several federal wildlife and natural resource protection laws (Final Rule). The...more
2023 served up roughly the same number of published appellate CEQA cases as 2022 with a defense win percentage of over 80 percent, which has been the case in many, if not all, of the past ten years. A prominent theme of...more
The 2022/2023 State budget included watershed (no pun intended) amendments to the regulations governing New York’s Freshwater Wetlands. It has been published that the changes to the Freshwater Wetlands Act are expected to...more
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) recently issued an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rule Making (ANPR) seeking written input on the development of updated Freshwater Mapping and Classification...more
On December 21, 2023, I published a post on the Center for California Water Resources Policy and Management’s DeltaCurrents blog discussing integration of resource optimization into endangered species policy to improve...more
City of Los Angeles - The Processes and Procedures Ordinance Becomes Operative January 22, 2024 - The city council adopted the Processes and Procedures Ordinance amending the Los Angeles Municipal Code (LAMC) to...more
In California Construction and Industrial Materials Association v. County of Ventura (2023) 97 Cal.App.5th 1, the California Construction and Industrial Materials Association and the Ventura County Coalition of Labor,...more
In a published opinion filed November 13, 2023, disposing of consolidated appeals, the Second District Court of Appeal (Div. 6) affirmed judgments denying writ petitions that sought to invalidate a Ventura County ordinance....more
With California facing a hotter and drier future punctuated by bouts of extreme weather, state officials are moving forward with a new framework for urban water use that could require some suppliers to make cuts of 20% or...more
The Sierra Club and two other environmental organizations filed a Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief (“Complaint”) in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against the U.S. Fish and...more
This is a brief survey of many of the environmental and regulatory laws passed by the Texas Legislature and signed by the Governor in the 88th Regular Session of the Legislature, which ended in May 2023, although a special...more
Federal officials on Wednesday announced $52 million in new funding for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to perform two dozen projects around San Francisco Bay to restore wildlife, expand wetlands, and reduce...more
In a sweeping effort to expand affordable housing and combat homelessness, Representative Maxine Waters of California introduced a package of three bills on June 21 aimed at narrowing the country’s racial wealth gap....more
On May 11, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the launch of its Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) Environmental Crimes Task Force. This new task force will focus specifically on combating...more
Virginia recently designated into law the Commonwealth’s 38th official symbol – the Chincoteague ponies. On March 27, 2023, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin signed a law naming the Chincoteague ponies the official Virginia...more
On January 25, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced that Treasury and South Africa’s National Treasury recently formed the U.S. – South Africa Task Force on Combating the Financing...more
The Mercury News – December 6- Just one day after the start of the new legislative session, Senator Scott Wiener announced Senate Bill 4 — the “Affordable Housing on Faith Lands Act.” The bill would remove red tape for...more
The North Carolina General Assembly ended its 2022 short session on July 1. While the legislature is scheduled to reconvene on July 26, no additional tax legislation is expected to be considered....more