The U.S. State Department has given preliminary environmental approval to a proposed alternative route through Nebraska for the Keystone XL pipeline, a route that is currently being challenged by landowners and other project opponents in the Nebraska Supreme Court. The State Department, which has already issued a cross-border permit for TransCanada Corp.’s project found that […]
As the public comment period ended for the Federal Energy Commission’s proposed revision to its gas pipeline policy, it appeared that the U.S. EPA was backtracking on earlier recommendations it had made to FERC as far as tools for evaluating climate change impacts. The proposed policy identified that FERC was considering changes to how large […]
As of July 24, the BLM has taken an updated position on the issue of compensatory mitigation. The BLM states in a new policy: “Except where the law specifically requires, the BLM must not require compensatory mitigation from public land users.” The BLM will still, in limited circumstances, consider voluntary proposals for compensatory mitigation, but […]
The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (“OEHHA”) proposed a regulation that would exempt coffee from Prop 65 warnings. According to OEHHA, there is scientific evidence that indicates that drinking coffee does not increase the risk of cancer and may reduce the risks of some types of cancers. The International Agency for Research on Cancer […]
As part of an infrastructure investment proposal unveiled by the Trump administration in February, many significant regulatory and environmental permitting reforms are expected in the coming year. One current proposal involves expanding authority under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to states, requiring states and localities to shoulder a larger share of infrastructure project costs […]
It was not a surprise last Thursday, when U.S. District Judge John F. Keenan dismissed with prejudice New York City’s lawsuit against ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP, and Royal Dutch Shell. The city’s lawsuit sought to hold these oil companies accountable for infrastructure damage related to climate change, claiming that the defendants knew that their production […]
Rumors swirling around Washington D.C. indicate that the Department of the Interior (“DOI”) may release a statement rescinding the fairly recently published USFWS Service-Wide Mitigation policy and Endangered Species Act-Compensatory Mitigation Policy, without replacing either policy. Further, the agency may also take the position that, in the absence of further congressional directive, the DOI is […]
Congress is set to begin ironing out differences in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) this week. The bill funds Department of Defense programs and activities. The House version of the must-pass bill includes a rider that would prohibit the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from listing the greater sage grouse under the Endangered Species […]
The case World Business Academy v. California State Lands Commission (2018, Case No. B284300) involves PG&E’s Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in San Luis Obispo County, and a dispute regarding the State Lands Commission’s decision to approve a lease extension via a CEQA categorical exemption. The Diablo Canyon nuclear plant as been operating since 1985 […]
President Trump on Tuesday pardoned a pair of Oregon cattle ranchers who had been serving sentences for arson on federal land — sentences that set off the armed occupation of a wildlife refuge in 2016. Dwight L. Hammond, now 76, and his son, Steven D. Hammond, 49, became a cause célèbre that inspired an antigovernment […]
