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
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
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
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
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
The United States Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit (“9th Circuit”) addressed in a February 11th Memorandum a challenge to a United States Forest Service (“Service”) action pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act...more
President Donald Trump’s second term has already proven to be an extension of his first-term deregulatory agenda at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Given historical trends, such deregulation will likely prompt...more
On March 18, three advocacy organizations and their members filed a lawsuit challenging an offshore wind project against the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). The...more
“We’re gonna win so much, you may even get tired of winning. And you’ll say, ‘Please, please. It’s too much winning. We can’t take it anymore.’” That was what then-candidate Trump promised life would be like in America...more
The United States District Court for the District of Columbia (“Court”) in an August 11th Memorandum Opinion (“Opinion”) addressed an issue arising under the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”). See Natural Resources Defense...more
Recently, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a concerned citizen against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) and National Marine Fisheries...more
As 2022 draws to a close, here is a brief description of recent environmental and regulatory law rulings, as well as new federal rulemaking proceedings....more
This week, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a rule rescinding the rule issued in 2020 defining “habitat” for the purposes of determining what constitutes “critical...more
New York Bight Lease Sale Under Attack - A New Jersey-based nonprofit organization, Save Long Beach Island, and its president sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in January 2022. They are asserting...more
Linear infrastructure projects, including oil and gas pipelines, electric transmission lines and transportation, have faced a number of regulatory challenges over the last year. Some of these challenges stem from changes in...more
I first saw Grand Coulee Dam as a 10-year old. My family and I were on our way to Spokane, Washington to attend Expo ’74, officially titled the “International Exposition on the Environment.” Expo ’74 was notable for being the...more
JANUARY 2020 - FEDERAL APPELLATE COURTS - U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit - El Paso County, Texas, et al. v. Donald J. Trump, et al. On January 8, 2020, a divided panel of the court quickly granted a...more
Linear infrastructure projects, including oil and gas pipelines, electric transmission lines and transportation, have faced a number of regulatory challenges in recent months. Some of these challenges stem from changes in...more
California approves ambitious new plan to deal with climate change and sea-level rise - San Francisco Chronicle – February 26 - The state's Ocean Protection Council, the cabinet-level policy body within the California...more
The greater sage-grouse is a chicken-like bird that is currently found in 11 western states. For more than 25 years, there has been considerable controversy concerning whether to list the greater sage-grouse for protection...more
Most people would not associate flood insurance with the protection of endangered species. But over the past decade, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been the target of multiple lawsuits alleging that the...more
On December 28, 2018, the Department of the Interior (DOI) published proposed changes to its rules governing how it processes requests for records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and provided a 30-day timeframe in...more