May 16, 2021 | Category:
NewsThe unveiling of a new financial sector climate change initiative – the Net-Zero Banking Alliance – on April 21, 2021, has highlighted the ongoing tensions between the U.S.’s largest banks and the Biden administration’s attempts to leverage financial firms to take part in the fight against climate change. While Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase, Wells […]
May 16, 2021 | Category:
NewsIn an unpublished decision, the Third District Court of Appeal upheld a supplemental EIR prepared by the California State Lands Commission (SLC) for a desalination plant located in the City of Huntington Beach. (California Coastkeeper Alliance et al., v. California State Lands Commission, Apr. 8, 2021, No. C088922; 2021 WL 1310816.) The appellate court notes […]
May 15, 2021 | Category:
NewsLast week, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife (USFWS) issued its decision to not list three salamander species as endangered or threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. The decision applies to the Samwel salamander (Hydromantes samweli), Shasta salamander, (H. shastae), and Wintu salamander (H. wintu), which have a historical range that includes portions of […]
May 14, 2021 | Category:
NewsIn the unpublished case Watchdogs v. California State Lands Commission (D077166, April 02, 2021), the Fourth District Court of Appeal upheld the trial court’s decision to grant a motion to dismiss a CEQA writ petition for failure to request a hearing on the petition as required by Public Resources Code section 21167.4, subdivision (a). The […]
May 13, 2021 | Category:
NewsOn May 6, 2021, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, under the Biden Administration, announced a proposed rule to revoke another regulation promulgated by the Trump Administration. Specifically, the Biden Administration has proposed a rule that would effectively revoke the Trump Administration’s final regulation that limited the scope of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (“Trump […]
May 12, 2021 | Category:
NewsThe oil and gas industry has received a lot of attention lately with the Biden Administration cancelling BLM oil and gas lease sales and California Governor Newsom announcing plans to unilaterally ban fracking after the California State Legislature failed to adopt a fracking ban. Those in the California oil and gas industry should also continue […]
May 11, 2021 | Category:
NewsOn April 28, 2021, the Senate passed Joint Resolution 14 (the “Resolution), which would effectively nullify the Oil and Natural Gas Sector: Emission Standards for New Reconstructed, and Modified Sources Review (85 Fed. Reg. 57018) rule published by the Environmental Protection Agency on September 14, 2020, under the Trump Administration. The 2020 EPA rule “finalized […]
May 11, 2021 | Category:
NewsOn Friday, April 23, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied Dakota Access LLC’s request for a rehearing on a three-judge panel ruling that the Dakota Access Pipeline (the “DAPL”) is operating without a key federal permit. By denying the petition, the appeals court stood by its January decision, which upheld the […]
May 10, 2021 | Category:
NewsDespite concern from customer advocacy groups, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) granted PG&E initial approval to securitize costs from a series of 2017 wildfires on Thursday, April 22. If the CPUC approves a similar financing order in May, PG&E will be able to issue $7.5 billion of recovery bonds, resulting in a charge to […]
May 9, 2021 | Category:
NewsOn April 20, 2021, the Los Angeles City Council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee held a hearing and voted unanimously to support a proposal to ban all oil and gas operations in the City of Los Angeles. The proposal came to the committee after the Council’s Energy, Climate Change, and Environmental Justice Committee proposed […]
