A district court granted in part and denied in part summary judgment for an animal rights group in a lawsuit concerning BLM's adoption of four 10-year management plans for controlling wild horse populations in certain herd management areas. The group argued BLM exceeded its statutory authority under...
The Fifth Circuit denied environmental groups' petition to review DOT's approval of a license to construct and operate a large deepwater oil facility off the Texas coast. The groups argued the final EIS applied a "flawed" alternatives analysis and "grossly underestimated" the facility's environmenta...
The D.C. Circuit denied an environmental group's petitions to review FERC's decision to grant time extensions for two developers to complete natural gas pipeline projects. The group argued FERC was too permissive in finding "good cause" to grant the extensions. The court found FERC followed its reas...
FWS revised regulations concerning the issuance of enhancement of survival and incidental take permits under the ESA.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration amended and updated its regulations for implementing NEPA, and incorporated updates to its categorical exclusions.
EPA entered into a proposed administrative settlement agreement under CERCLA for past response costs associated with the Chemical Recycling Inc., Superfund Site in Wylie, Texas.
BLM finalized a rule to reduce the waste of natural gas from venting, flaring, and leaks during oil and gas production activities on federal and Indian leases and to ensure that, when federal or Indian gas is wasted, the public and Indian mineral owners are compensated for the wasted gas through royalty payments.
United States v. Abex Aerospace, No. 2:16-cv-02696 (C.D. Cal. Mar. 29, 2024). Under a third amendment to a proposed consent decree, additional settling CERCLA defendants must pay $20,500,000 toward cleanup of environmental contamination at the Omega Chemical Corporation Superfund Site in Los Angeles County, California.
United States v. Intercontinental Terminals Co., LLC., No. 4:24-cv-01207 (S.D. Tex. Apr. 2, 2024). Under a proposed consent decree, a settling CERCLA defendant must pay $6,645,000 to restore, replace, rehabilitate, or acquire the equivalent of those resources injured by the releases of hundreds of thousands of barrels of a mixture of petrochemical products and firefighting foam and water into the environment as a result of a fire that ignited at a terminal facility in Deer Park, Harris County, Texas.
FWS revised its regulations concerning protections of endangered and threatened species under the ESA by reinstating the general application of the "blanket rule'' option for protecting newly listed threatened species pursuant to §4(d) of the Act, with the continued option to promulgate species-specific §4(d) rules, and extending to federally recognized tribes the exceptions to prohibitions for threatened species that the regulations currently provide to the employees or agents of FWS and other federal and state agencies to aid, salvage, or dispose of threatened species.