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 […]
Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, is resigning after facing criticism for ethical allegations for several months. The news came out in a Tweet by President Trump who accepted Pruitt’s resignation. Pruitt faced scrutiny for potential ethical lapses tied to his spending, treatment of staff, relationships with energy leaders, housing, and travel […]
The White House has taken the first official steps toward rewriting regulations for the National Environmental Policy Act. The Council on Environmental Quality submitted an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking on NEPA to the Federal Register last Friday. Link HERE. A CEQ spokesman said the document would be published “in the next couple of days.” […]
June 27, 2018 | Category:
NewsJustice Anthony Kennedy, the swing vote between conservatives and liberals on the Supreme Court, announced Wednesday he’s retiring at the end of July, giving President Donald Trump another chance to shape the highest court in the land. In a statement, the Supreme Court said the 81-year-old Kennedy will step down effective July 31. The judge […]
A federal judge on Monday threw out a lawsuit brought by the cities of San Francisco and Oakland against fossil fuel companies over the anticipated costs of dealing with future climate change. The decision should raise a warning for other local governments around the United States that have filed similar suits, including New York City. […]
The median price for a home in California has topped the $600,000 mark for the first time ever, according to the latest report from the California Association of Realtors. You can blame the Bay Area and other red hot high-cost areas for the increase. There are now five counties out of the nine-county Bay Area […]
