Stoel Rives Deeply Rooted Podcast Season 3 Episode 2: Forest Management, Endangered Species, and Regulatory Frameworks with Galen Schuler, General Counsel for Green Diamond Resources
Under Secretary Doug Burgum, the Department of the Interior (DOI) has quickly moved to implement Sections 4 and 5 of President Trump’s 7 July Executive Order 14315 titled “Ending Market Distorting Subsidies for Unreliable,...more
On August 4, 2025, U.S. Department of Interior Deputy Chief of Staff-Policy Gregory Wischer issued a memorandum directing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to take multiple actions related to the Service’s eagle permitting...more
The frenetic pace of anti-renewable actions from the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) has continued into this week with the issuance of a new memorandum from Greg Wischer, deputy chief of staff for policy, directing the...more
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
On July 15, 2025, the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) circulated an internal memorandum, requiring 68 different DOI actions related to wind and solar project development to be submitted to the DOI Office of the...more
On January 20, 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order 14154, “Unleashing American Energy,” which requires all agencies to identify actions that potentially burden deployment of domestic energy resources and develop...more
On President Trump’s first and second days in office, the new administration released a flurry of executive actions, in the form of both memorandums and executive orders, focused on the energy industry:...more
President Trump has directed the Secretary of Commerce and Secretary of the Interior, in consultation with the heads of other departments and agencies of the United States as necessary, to immediately restart the work from...more
On September 30, 2024, Ya-Wei (Jake) Li, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Pesticide Programs at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), announced that he will be leaving EPA to take a position with the U.S....more
Earthjustice sent a June 11th 60-day Endangered Species Act (“ESA”) citizen suit Notice of Intent to Sue (“NOI”) to the Tonto National Forest (“Forest”). The NOI alleges that Forest violated Section 7 of the ESA in its...more
The AGs of Texas, Kansas, and Oklahoma filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFW) and their respective Secretary and Director for allegedly violating the U.S....more
Last week, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a ruling allowing the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) to continue pursuing its large Endangered Species Act (ESA) lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and...more
This January, the Department of the Interior and the Department of Commerce announced updated civil monetary penalties for violations of federal wildlife and natural resource protection laws including the Endangered Species...more
The United States Department of Interior Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) issued a November 15th Instruction Memorandum (“IM”) titled: Habitat Connectivity on Public Lands...more
The Western Environmental Law Center and Center for Biological Diversity (collectively “CBD”) filed a Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief (“Complaint”) in the United States District Court for the District of...more
California challenges San Bernardino air cargo facility used by Amazon - Freight Waves – January 4 - The state of California on Monday petitioned a federal appeals court to rehear its lawsuit challenging a new air...more
On December 10, 2021, the Biden Administration released the Fall 2021 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (Unified Agenda), which is a semi-annual compilation of information concerning regulations and policy...more
We interrupt our usual scrutiny of the courts to focus (mostly) on the important developments in notices and rulemaking issued by and concerning federal regulatory agencies and departments in the past several weeks....more
After a brief hiatus, incidental take of migratory birds will again be a federal crime beginning December 3, 2021. Less than 10 months after instituting a final rule declaring that incidental take of birds is not subject to...more
In May, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (“Service”) announced a proposed rule revoking the Trump administration’s final rule on incidental take under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (“MBTA”). In the January 7, 2021 final...more
On June 29, 2021, fourteen members of Congress delivered a letter to Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, urging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) to use its authority to list the monarch butterfly (Danaus...more
On June 7, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court (“SCOTUS”) agreed with the Department of Justice and declined to hear a case brought by the Kansas Natural Resource Coalition (Coalition) challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife...more
On May 14, 2021, the Department of Justice filed a brief with the Supreme Court arguing that the Court should not hear the case of Kansas Natural Resource Coalition v. Department of Interior (“KNRC”). KNRC is a challenge to a...more
On May 7, 2021, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (“USFWS” or “Service”) published a proposed rule that would restore the traditional interpretation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (“MBTA”) as prohibiting incidental take...more
The regulation of protected wildlife is likely to undergo a seismic shift as a result of the change in administrations. Whereas the Trump Administration took several actions to narrow the reach of wildlife protection...more