On-Demand Webinar | Recent Updates to Federal Environmental and Natural Resource Regulations
On-Demand Webinar | Linear Infrastructure Redux: Adapting Your Projects to Meet the New Regulatory Climate
On July 15, 2025, the Office of the Secretary of the Department of the Interior (the “Department”) issued a memorandum—“Departmental Review Procedures for Decisions, Actions, Consultations, and Other Undertakings Related to...more
Key Takeaways What Happened: A Federal District Court in California ruled as a matter of statutory interpretation that certain mandatory water contract conversions for the Central Valley Project are not subject to...more
A new executive order seeks to streamline funding for and construction of data center projects by reducing regulatory red tape. On July 23, 2025, the Trump administration issued an executive order titled “Accelerating...more
The Committee on Natural Resources (Committee) in the U.S. House of Representatives is considering a number of bills regarding wildlife, including bills to reauthorize the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and Marine Mammal...more
The Ninth Circuit held that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) acted arbitrarily and capriciously by failing to explain in its Record of Decision why it selected a project alternative that did not meet the development...more
On May 12, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) to reevaluate its decision not to list two species of Joshua tree—Yucca brevifolia (western...more
Environmental criminal law in France has developed steadily over the past several years. Recently, however, there has been a shift of the political narrative — both in Europe and domestically — toward simplification rather...more
Mr. Kyle Kunkler has been appointed the Deputy Assistant Administrator for Pesticides at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP). Since February 2020, Kunkler...more
On June 12, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the availability of updated refined interim core maps that identify areas that EPA states are important to 12 threatened or endangered (listed)...more
The federal government is continuing to implement President Donald Trump’s Unleashing American Energy mandate to promote domestic energy and infrastructure projects. On June 18, 2025, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers...more
Several high-profile species — including the burrowing owl, Crotch’s bumble bee, western Joshua tree, western spadefoot toad, and the monarch butterfly — have recently been elevated to candidate status under either the...more
On October 10, 2024, the California Fish and Game Commission (Commission) unanimously voted to designate the western burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia hypugaea) as a candidate species under the California Endangered Species...more
As they do every year, male lesser prairie-chickens gathered this Spring on the 48,000-acre Gardiner Angus Ranch in Ashland, Kansas for their ritual mating dance to attract females. The Gardiner Ranch has some of the best...more
On June 9, 2025, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) published a request for information (RFI) seeking to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of key permitting programs under Section 10(a) of the Endangered Species...more
The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) announced on May 30 that it will invoke emergency permitting procedures to accelerate environmental review of select geothermal energy projects, with three proposed geothermal...more
On Monday, June 9, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) opened a short, 30-day public comment period soliciting information and comments to, “improve the overall efficiency and effectiveness” of Section 10(a) take...more
On April 17, 2025, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service (together, the “Services”) proposed to rescind their longstanding regulatory definition of “harm”, which has for decades served...more
The environmental organization Earthjustice submitted May 19th comments to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fishery Service (collectively, “Services”) addressing their proposed rescission of the...more
On May 9, 2025, fifteen democratic states (“Plaintiff States”) sued the Trump Administration in Washington District Court, claiming that President Trump’s executive order “Declaring a National Energy Emergency” (“Executive...more
The Defenders of Wildlife’s Center for Conservation Innovation announced the publication of a paper titled: Habitat conservation plans under the endangered species act: A comprehensive three-decade analysis (“Paper”)....more
On April 23, 2025, the U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) announced newly adopted emergency permitting procedures it is implementing to accelerate the review and approval of projects in relation “to the identification,...more
The Trump administration changes course on regulatory interpretations relating to the scope of protections for endangered and threatened species and migratory birds. ...more
On April 29, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the release of its final Insecticide Strategy (Strategy), available here. EPA states in the Strategy that it is “intended to create a consistent,...more
On April 17, 2025, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service (Services) proposed a rule to rescind the regulatory definition of “harm” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The proposed rule...more
On April 17, 2025, the Departments of Interior and Commerce issued a proposed rule to rescind the regulatory definition of “harm” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) which, if finalized, would fundamentally alter a...more