The New Cold War: Risk, Sanctions, Compliance Episode 24: “Elephants and the Mafia: Combatting Criminal Wildlife Trafficking”
The heads of agencies shall take all appropriate action to eliminate the procurement of paper straws and otherwise ensure that paper straws are no longer provided within agency buildings....more
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (“Service”) and Center for Biological Diversity (“CBD”) entered into a January 16th Stipulated Settlement Agreement (“Agreement”) imposing deadlines for required listing decisions...more
House Bill 1198 has been introduced which would impose a height restriction on certain wind power devices. The Bill was introduced by Representative Jeremiah Moore of Clarendon and Senator Jonathan Dismang of Little Rock....more
On January 20, 2025, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (Service) will publish a positive 90-day finding on a 2016 petition (Petition) to delist the golden-cheeked warbler (Setophaga chrysoparia) (GCWA). The decision comes on...more
On December 11, 2024, the Department of the Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service revised its regulations covering rights-of-way across National Wildlife Refuges and other Service-administered lands. The revised regulations...more
The incoming Trump Administration is expected to prioritize the rollback of Biden-era endangered species regulations, aiming to reduce the regulatory burden on land-intensive businesses and enhance energy independence. This...more
The dramatic increase in the use cases for data storage, artificial intelligence and cloud computing have resulted in an atmospheric level rise in the demand for data centers., and the question of providing sufficient power...more
On November 15, 2024, an affiliate of the Bird Alliance of Oregon (formerly known as the Audubon Society of Portland, Oregon) acquired an approximately 12.5-acre vacant property located on NE 82nd Avenue in Portland, across...more
A New Perimeter team, including lawyers from DLA Piper Peru, recently supported a historic “debt-for-nature” swap between the US and Peru that will redirect more than USD20 million to protect three priority areas in the...more
Governor Gavin Newsom on September 29 signed Assembly Bill (AB) 98 into law. The bill, which faced opposition from business groups, local governments, and environmental justice advocates, forbids cities and counties from...more
On September 27, 2024, Governor Gavin Newsom signed California Assembly Bill 1889, the “Room to Roam Act.” The Act amends Section 65302 of the Government Code to add certain fish, wildlife, and habitat connectivity...more
California AG Rob Bonta sued global energy giant ExxonMobil Corporation for allegedly deceiving the public about the recyclability of plastic products and creating a global plastics pollution crisis in violation of state...more
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