Navigating Environmental Restrictions on Alternative Project Delivery for Complex Infrastructure Projects
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As discussed in our earlier post, California's CEQA landscape has rapidly, and potentially seismically, evolved with the passage of AB 130 and SB 131. This post focuses on the immediate creation of a new statutory exemption,...more
United States Congressman Bruce Westerman (R-Arkansas) has introduced legislation into the United States House of Representatives titled: Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development Act (“SPEED Act”)....more
As part of our ongoing monitoring of international and domestic legal developments, this article provides an update on the International Seabed Authority’s (“ISA”) Council Part II of the 30th Session and the National Oceanic...more
Senate Bill (SB) 131 includes important California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) exemptions for qualified advanced manufacturing projects, health centers and rural clinics, childcare centers, food banks, farmworker...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
On June 30, 2025, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law significant reforms to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), seeking to promote housing projects in a state that desperately needs them. Much of...more
The budget reconciliation bill signed into law on July 4 (also known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill”) adds a new provision to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) that allows project sponsors/applicants to pay for...more
On July 3, 2025, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (“Army Corps”), and the Departments of Energy (“DOE”), Interior (“DOI”), Transportation (“DOT”),...more
Following up on our earlier coverage of the new California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) exemption passed as part of budget trailer bill AB 130, another significant CEQA pathway was created through its companion...more
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) applies to a major federal action that significantly affects the quality of the human environment. On June 30, several federal agencies took their own federal action which will...more
Dive into the fundamentals of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in our engaging session tailored for professionals in the clean energy sector. By the end of our...more
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a pair of decisions in EPA v. Calumet Shreveport Refining and Oklahoma v. EPA on June 18, 2025, resolving two related circuit splits regarding proper venue for challenging certain U.S....more
The National Environmental Protection Act ("NEPA") requires that federal agencies assess the environmental effects of their proposed actions prior to making final decisions, including decisions on issuing federal permits,...more
In a much-anticipated decision, the U.S. Supreme Court made a major “course correction” to the law governing federal environmental reviews and permitting decisions for infrastructure and other projects under the National...more
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled in favor of an alliance of local counties that support a planned 88-mile railroad project in Utah, concluding that the federal environmental review process did not have to consider...more
The Supreme Court of the United States issued one decision today: Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado, No. 23-975: This case concerns the scope of federal court review over an agency’s...more
The Trump Administration has issued a Presidential Memorandum, "Updating Permitting Technology for the 21st Century," aimed at modernizing and streamlining the federal environmental review and permitting processes through...more
New York has joined states like New Jersey and Maryland, which have enacted environmental justice laws. New York's Environmental Justice Siting Law (EJSL) (Chapter 840 of 2022 [S8830/A2103-D] amended by Chapter 49 of 2023...more
Buoyed by robust demand for large parcels of undeveloped land, the rise of artificial intelligence workloads, and the game-changing role that hyperscalers are playing, the real estate market for data centers is in a strong...more
Federal - In the first few months of the second Trump presidency, the Administration took steps to roll back environmental justice (EJ) considerations in federal decision making. This included a flurry of executive orders...more
President Donald Trump signed an executive order (EO), "Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry and Amending Executive Order 1424," on April 8, 2025, that places coal at the center of the administration's...more
A California court of appeal has held that a lead agency conducting environmental review, under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), of “vehicle miles traveled” (VMT) impacts may not unquestioningly use thresholds...more
Assembly Bill 52 (AB 52) requires public agencies to consult with tribes during the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) process. On March 14, 2025, in Koi Nation of Northern California v. City of Clearlake, the First...more
Federal agencies are now responsible for their own National Environmental Policy Act procedures, creating uncertainty and opportunity for federal environmental reviews....more