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Oil & Gas Preemption

ArentFox Schiff

South Carolina Court Dismisses City’s Climate Litigation Against Energy Companies

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A South Carolina state trial court recently dismissed a climate tort case filed by the City of Charleston seeking to hold major energy companies liable for harms allegedly caused by climate change. This ended a case that had...more

Mintz

Climate Tort Lawsuit in South Carolina Dismissed by State Court

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On August 6, 2025, a state court judge in South Carolina dismissed the climate change tort lawsuit filed by the City of Charleston against a number of major fossil fuel companies. (This lawsuit was one of approximately three...more

McGuireWoods LLP

Eighth Circuit Reaffirms Federal Preemption Over Local Pipeline Ordinances

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Last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit issued an opinion discussing the Pipeline Safety Act’s (PSA’s) preemption over local ordinances seeking to regulate pipeline safety — a decision that provides...more

Mintz

Pennsylvania State Court Dismisses Climate Tort Litigation Against Major Fossil Fuel Companies

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A local state court in Pennsylvania recently dismissed an array of climate tort claims brought against major fossil fuel companies by a local government--in this case, Bucks County. Among the three dozen or so climate tort...more

Venable LLP

Reconciliation Bill Would Create New FERC Siting Regime for Petroleum, Hydrogen, and Carbon Dioxide Pipelines

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On May 11, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce released its proposed energy provisions for inclusion in the budget reconciliation package, including several provisions that could dramatically reform the federal...more

Mintz

Colorado Supreme Court Allows Climate Tort Litigation to Proceed

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On May 12, 2025, in a 5-2 decision, the Colorado Supreme Court held that the tort claims brought by local governments in Colorado against major fossil fuel companies concerning damages stemming from climate change could...more

K&L Gates LLP

Natural Gas Bans: From New York to Washington, Courts Shift the Landscape on Legality of State and Local Gas Bans

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Following the election wins we reported on in November 2024, state and local bans on the use of natural gas remain a highly litigated issue across the country. In this alert, we cover two recent cases dealing with local and...more

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

The Battle Over Climate Superfund Laws: Legal Challenges in Vermont and New York

States are increasingly turning to “Climate Superfund” laws as a potential mechanism to offset the growing costs of climate-related disaster recovery and the construction of more climate change-resilient infrastructure. These...more

Jones Day

Climate Change Suits Against Energy Companies Tossed by U.S. State Courts

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On January 23, 2025, in an opinion for City of Annapolis v. BP PLC, et al. and Anne Arundel County, Maryland v. BP PLC, et al., the Circuit Court of Anne Arundel County, Maryland, dismissed two cases brought by the City of...more

Jones Day

Baltimore's Climate Change Lawsuit Dismissed

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In City of Baltimore v. BP, et al., court holds that nuisance and tort claims are preempted by federal law and beyond the limits of state law....more

Goldberg Segalla

California Supreme Court Holds Local Ordinance Banning Oil and Gas Drilling Preempted by State Law

Goldberg Segalla on

Last week, the California Supreme Court, in a rare unanimous ruling, struck down a Monterey County voter-approved local initiative that would have banned oil and gas drilling and imposed severe restrictions on oil and gas...more

BakerHostetler

The Seven-Year Saga of Monterey County’s Measure Z Comes to a Close

BakerHostetler on

In 2016, through a voter initiative called Measure Z, the people of Monterey County, California, enacted a ban on two features of oil and gas operations. One was a ban on injecting or impounding wastewater from operations....more

Pierce Atwood LLP

Does the 9th Circuit’s rejection of Berkeley, CA’s municipal gas ban spell doom for Massachusetts’ own gas-banning “Demonstration...

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We bring to your attention this post by our colleague Randy Rich of Pierce Atwood’s Energy Infrastructure Group on the 9th Circuit’s decision earlier this week in California Restaurant Association v. City of Berkeley, No....more

Troutman Pepper Locke

Uncle Sam Argues No Federal Preemption for Municipal Pipeline Regulation

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The federal government’s recent argument that neither federal law nor the U.S. Constitution preempted a municipal ordinance in South Portland, ME demonstrates the sometimes-complex relationship between federal, state, and...more

Cozen O'Connor

Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission Rules Two Municipal Permitting Fees Are Preempted by State Law

Cozen O'Connor on

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Code (Code) gives the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) extensive authority to regulate public utilities in Pennsylvania. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has held that the General...more

Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC

Currents - Energy Industry Insights: Issue 27, July 2020

Big Oil repeatedly remanded to state courts - will SCOTUS come to the rescue? "Oil companies facing suits by state and local governments that want them to bear a share of the cost of responding to the consequences of...more

Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard,...

Zoning/Natural Gas Act: Federal District Court Addresses Preemption Issue

The United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia (“the Court”) addressed in a March 9th opinion a preemption issue involving an interstate pipeline. See Atlantic Coast Pipeline v. Nelson Co. Bd. Of...more

Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC

Currents - Energy Industry Insights - October 2019

This Breakthrough Lithium Extraction Technology Could Accelerate the Sustainable Energy Transition - "A breakthrough nanotechnology from cleantech start-up EnergyX promises to revolutionise the speed, cost and...more

Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard,...

State of Washington Rail Transport Crude Oil Volatility Rules: U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration Public...

The United States Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (“PHMSA”) issued a July 24th Public Notice and Invitation to Comment (“Notice”) addressing the states of North Dakota and Montana’s (“States”) request...more

BCLP

Colorado’s New Oil and Gas Law: What’s Next?

BCLP on

The 2019 Colorado legislative session took the state’s oil and gas-development opponents and proponents on a wild ride. On April 3, 2019, the Colorado Senate passed SB 19-181, which dramatically changes the regulation of oil...more

Kilpatrick

Washington State Department of Licensing v. Cougar Den Inc.

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On Tuesday, October 30, the United States Supreme Court heard oral argument in Washington State Department of Licensing v. Cougar Den, Inc., a case involving the question of whether the Yakama Nation’s 1855 treaty provision...more

Verrill

Pipeline Appeals Grant of Summary Judgment to South Portland Regarding Its Ban on Marine Loading of Crude Oil

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Judge Woodcock of the U.S. District Court in Portland, finding that the South Portland’s Clear Skies Ordinance (the Ordinance) was neither a “preempted pipeline facility safety standard or a discriminatory ordinance enacted...more

Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC

Currents - Energy Industry Insights - November 2018 #2

U.S. to Give Eight Nations Oil Waivers Under Iran Sanctions, Official Says - "The U.S. has agreed to let eight countries - including Japan, India and South Korea - keep buying Iranian oil after it reimposes sanctions on the...more

Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard,...

Oregon Clean Fuels Program: U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit Addresses Judicial Challenge

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit addressed a challenge to Oregon’s Clean Fuels Program (“Program”). See American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers v. O’Keeffe, No. 15-35834, 2018 WL 4263250 (9th Cir....more

Bricker Graydon LLP

7th Circuit Court of Appeals affirms Illinois subsidy for nuclear generation facilities

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On September 13, 2018, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued its long-awaited decision in the consolidated cases of Elec. Power Supply Assn. v. Anthony M. Star, 7th Cir. Nos. 17-2433, 17-2445, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 25980...more

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