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Flowing Water, Flowing Costs: Assessing FERC’s Authority to Decommission Dams

This year, 2019, marks the 20th anniversary of the removal of the Edwards Dam, one of the first functioning hydroelectric dam to be decommissioned and removed in the United States. It was also the first to be removed under the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC’s) asserted power to compel such a removal without compensation, an assertion raising legal questions that have yet to be fully resolved. As our hydroelectric infrastructure continues to age, these questions may again come to the forefront.

EPA’s Existing Authority to Impose a Carbon “Tax”

A number of bills have been introduced in recent years to put a price on carbon via a federal carbon tax. These proposals generally proceed from the implicit assumption that the federal government in general, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in particular, does not already have such authority. That is incorrect. Under a federal statute that has been on the books since 1952, EPA could impose a carbon “tax” any time an administration in power is willing to do so.

S. 2260

H.R. 4317

S. 2470

Center for Biological Diversity v. United States Environmental Protection Agency

The Fifth Circuit dismissed environmental groups' challenge to EPA's issuance of a CWA general permit authorizing discharges from oil and gas facilities operating in the Gulf of Mexico. Environmental groups argued that EPA violated NEPA by failing to prepare an adequate EIS before issuing the permit...

Oregon Cattlemen's Association v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

In an unpublished opinion, the Ninth Circuit reversed the denial of an environmental group's motion to intervene in a lawsuit challenging EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' 2015 Clean Water Rule. The court found that the group had a practical interest in the rule and that this interest was no...

Natural Resources Defense Council v. United States Environmental Protection Agency

A district court denied environmental groups' motion for summary judgment in a lawsuit seeking FOIA disclosure of an EPA computer model related to its rollback of Obama-era greenhouse gas emission standards for vehicle manufacturers. The groups challenged EPA's withholding of the model pursuant to a...

Western Watersheds Project v. Interior Board of Land Appeals

An Idaho district court transferred venue in a challenge to BLM's decision to renew livestock grazing permits for an allotment in northern Utah and to the Interior Board of Land Appeals' (IBLA's) reinstatement of that decision. An environmental group argued that BLM's decision violated FLPMA and NEP...

California Communities Against Toxics v. Environmental Protection Agency

The D.C. Circuit dismissed a challenge to a 2018 EPA memo that interpreted §112 of the CAA to mean that major sources of toxic emissions could reclassify to area sources and thereby ease their regulatory obligations. California and environmental groups argued that EPA failed to provide notice and c...