March 12, 2019 | Category:
NewsThroughout last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) repeatedly confirmed that regulated entities could expect the EPA’s focus to be on compliance programs rather than harsher enforcement actions. This reprioritization included renaming the EPA’s previously titled National Enforcement Initiatives to the National Compliance Initiatives, working more cooperatively with businesses before resorting to more punitive […]
The below is from the ConocoPhillips Press Release HERE. HOUSTON – ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) today announced that an international arbitration Tribunal ruled Venezuela unlawfully expropriated ConocoPhillips’ significant oil investments in the Petrozuata and Hamaca heavy crude oil projects and the offshore Corocoro development project. According to an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) […]
The National Resources Management Act was approved yesterday by Congress in a landslide 363-62 vote. The Act is a sweeping public lands conservation package that will protect millions of acres of land and rivers across the country. It also designates over 1 million acres of new wilderness land, with almost 700,000 acres reserved for recreation […]
Barrick Gold Corp. proposed a merger with Newmont Mining Corp. based on an unsolicited, all-share deal. The offer values Newmont at $17.85 billion and would combine the world’s two largest gold mining companies. Barrick argues that the merger will allow the company to trim costs while combined assets, especially in Nevada, will open up additional […]
In a joint statement released on Thursday, the White House, Department of Transportation, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that the Trump administration has ended negotiations with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) over vehicle fuel-efficiency standards. Until Thursday, the EPA, CARB, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had been engaged in talks […]
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently reported that oil and natural gas lease sales produced more than $1.1 billion in 2018, shattering the previous record of $408 billion in 2008. The revenue was generated by 28 sales amounting to around 1,412 parcels of land and covering about 1.5 million acres. The BLM offers lease […]
The below excerpt from Scotusblog can be found HERE. The Clean Water Act bars the discharge of any pollutant into “navigable waters” without a permit. In its lone grant on today’s order list, the Supreme Court agreed to decide whether a violation of the CWA occurs only when a pollutant is released directly into navigable […]
Bowing to the reality of delays, out-of-control costs, and accusations of corruption, payback, and favoritism, California Governor Gavin Newsom reversed former Governor Jerry Brown’s steadfast support of the doomed rail system in his first State of the State speech on February 12, 2019. Newsom stated that the high-speed rail project (a saga which began with […]
Colorado mineral owners filed a federal lawsuit against the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (the “COGCC”) this past Wednesday, asserting that the COGCC’s authority to allow companies to drill on objecting residents’ land is unconstitutional. Colorado Rising, the activist group backing the lawsuit, recently suffered defeat of its November ballot measure that would have […]
The transportation sector in California accounts for 40% of greenhouse gas emissions. To combat this, on December 14, 2018, California Air Resources Board (“CARB”) adopted a regulation that sets a statewide goal for public transit agencies to transition to fully zero-emission bus fleets by 2040. There are currently 150 zero-emission buses operating in California. Under […]
