A district court denied summary judgment for conservation groups in a challenge to BLM's authorization of six lease sales for oil and gas development in the western United States. The groups argued BLM failed to take the requisite "hard look" when analyzing the cumulative impact of greenhouse gas em...
A district court denied the state of Alaska's and North Slope Borough's challenge to NMFS' decision not to delist the Arctic ringed seal as an endangered species following their 2019 petition. The plaintiffs argued NMFS failed to credit new information from FWS' analysis, failed to credit the Interg...
In an unpublished opinion, the Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part summary judgment for FWS in a challenge to the Service's issuance of an incidental take regulation for polar bears living along Alaska's Beaufort Sea. Environmental groups argued FWS failed to satisfy the Marine Mamma...
The Fifth Circuit vacated two orders EPA issued under TSCA that prohibited a plastics company from manufacturing or processing long-chain perfluoroalkyls (PFAS) during its fluorination process. In March 2022, EPA charged that the company's fluorination process was subject to a recently promulgated s...
The State Water Control Board reissued, with amendments, the Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System general permit for discharges of stormwater from construction activities. The amendments, among other things, update provisions concerning authorization of non-stormwater discharges, implement new requirements for controlling construction dewatering discharges to impaired waters or exceptional waters, and add a turbidity benchmark option to the contents of the stormwater pollution prevention plan.
The Public Utility Commission proposed amendments to regulations governing motions to intervene. The amendments would change the intervention deadline from 45 to 30 days for proceedings involving applications for certificates of convenience and necessity for new transmission facilities. Comments are due April 11, 2024.
The Public Utilities Commission proposed amendments to regulations governing the implementation of a renewable energy standard. The amendments would reflect statutory changes enacted in June 2022 by changing the annual percentages of renewable energy required to achieve a 100% renewable energy standard by 2033. A hearing will be held April 11, 2024. Comments are due April 24, 2024. See https://rules.sos.ri.gov/Promulgations/part/810-40-05-2.
The Environmental Protection Agency proposed amendments to regulations governing primary drinking water standards. The amendments would improve the readability and grammar of the rules. A hearing will be held April 26, 2024. Comments are due the same date. See https://www.registerofohio.state.oh.us/hearings/hearingsSearch/results/846307/348676.
The Public Service Commission proposed amendments to regulations governing natural gas and oil pipeline rules and regulations. The amendments would update, modernize, correct errors, and reorganize the regulations. A hearing will be held April 30, 2024. See https://rules.nebraska.gov/docket.
The Department of Environment proposed to adopt a new regulation and amend existing regulations governing drinking water quality. The adoption and amendments would clarify and formalize procedures regarding Tier 1 public notices for water systems, particularly addressing outages, flooded wells, and flooded springs, and clarify the procedures, such as boil water advisories and water quality sampling, required during such incidents. Comments are due April 22, 2024.