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US Fish and Wildlife Service Energy Sector Oil & Gas

(ACOEL) | American College of Environmental...

Protecting the Lesser Prairie-Chicken on Private Land in a Shifting Regulatory Environment

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

Husch Blackwell LLP

Trump Executive Actions Impacting Renewable Energy

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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

Vinson & Elkins LLP

Endangered Species Regulation Under the New Administration

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The incoming Trump Administration is expected to prioritize the rollback of Biden-era endangered species regulations, aiming to reduce the regulatory burden on land-intensive businesses and enhance energy independence. This...more

Allen Matkins

California Environmental Law & Policy Update - November 2020 #2

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U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service faces suit over removal of endangered species protections for gray wolves - Bullet The Hill – November 9 - Last Friday, a coalition of conservation groups filed a notice of intent to sue...more

Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC

Currents - Energy Industry Insights - May 2020 #3

Industry Expert Insights - We reached out to one of our Lex Mundi partners and a well-known expert in Australia in the energy and legal industries to get her thoughts on the current energy climate. Emma Covacevich is...more

Pillsbury - Gravel2Gavel Construction & Real...

A Trio of Environmental Decisions from the Fourth Circuit

Within the past few weeks, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has issued some very significant rulings regarding the construction of new natural gas pipelines. ...more

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP

Fish and Wildlife Service Doubles Down on Department of Interior Opinion on Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA)

On April 11, 2018, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) issued a Memorandum titled “Guidance on the recent M-Opinion affecting the Migratory Bird Treaty Act” (the “Memorandum”), giving field advice to its enforcement...more

Perkins Coie

Department of Interior Reverses MBTA’s Take Definition in a New Solicitor’s Opinion

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The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of the Solicitor issued Memorandum M-37050, on December 22, 2017, which adopts the position that the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) prohibition on the “taking” or “killing” of...more

Latham & Watkins LLP

Interior Department and Forest Service Identify Burdens on Domestic Energy Development

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Report on the agencies’ review of programs provides a roadmap to understanding which energy policies the Trump administration will revise. Several federal agencies have now issued reports responding to Executive Order (EO)...more

Nossaman LLP

Department of the Interior Announces Actions to Expedite Energy Development with Potential Consequences for Listed Species

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On October 25, 2017, the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) released a report entitled “Review of the Department of the Interior Actions that Potentially Burden Domestic Energy” identifying agency actions that potentially...more

WilmerHale

Administration Announces New Mitigation Policies

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This afternoon, the Administration issued two policies intended to encourage private investment in natural resource conservation and to facilitate application of the mitigation hierarchy—avoiding, minimizing and compensating...more

BakerHostetler

Migratory Bird Treaty Act: Question Of Unintentional “Take” Primed For Potential Fifth Circuit En Banc Or Supreme Court Review

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Recently, industry won a major legal victory regarding liability—or lack thereof—for unintentional and indirect bird deaths under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA). Unfortunately, that victory could be short lived,...more

BakerHostetler

Birds of a Feather? Greater Sage-Grouse Decision Shows That Conservation and Energy Development Can Flock Together

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On September 22, energy developers in the West breathed a sigh of relief when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced that the greater sage-grouse does not require protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA)....more

Latham & Watkins LLP

Court Limits Migratory Bird Treaty Act Applicability to Incidental Take

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On September 4, 2015, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a ruling in United States v. CITGO that a “taking” subject to prosecution under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) does not include the...more

Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr LLP

Liability for Unintentional Bird Deaths Still Up in the Air

The recent Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision that unintentional bird deaths under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (“MBTA”) are not “takes” under the MBTA and therefore not subject to criminal liability, adds fodder to the...more

Troutman Pepper Locke

Fifth Circuit Holds that Migratory Bird Treaty Act Does Not Apply to Incidental Takes - What It Means for Energy Developers

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On September 4, 2015, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the misdemeanor convictions of Citgo Petroleum Corporation and Citgo Refining and Chemicals Company, L.P. (collectively Citgo) for “taking” migratory birds in...more

Perkins Coie

Birds of a Feather: The 5th Circuit Joins the 8th and 9th Circuits’ Narrow View of the MBTA’s Take Prohibition

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On September 4, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held in United States v. CITGO Petroleum Co. that the Migratory Bird Treaty Act’s take prohibition does not include the unintentional take of migratory...more

Nossaman LLP

Fifth Circuit Spurns Second and Tenth Circuits, Sides with Eighth and Ninth Circuits on Interpretation of MBTA “Take” Prohibition

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Under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA), it is unlawful to “pursue, hunt, take, capture, kill, attempt to take, capture, or kill . . . any migratory bird” protected by the Act. 16 U.S.C. 703(a) & 704(a). In a recent...more

Davis Wright Tremaine LLP

Migratory Bird Treaty Act Narrowly Interpreted: the Fifth Circuit Joins the Eighth and Ninth Circuits

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a district court decision holding CITGO liable for three misdemeanors under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) for bird deaths (the opinion lists 35 birds, including “twenty...more

Troutman Pepper Locke

Lesser Prairie Chicken Listing Vacated by Federal Court - What It Means for Energy Development

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Last week, in a decision that surprised many, a federal court in Texas overturned the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s (Service) decision last year to list the lesser prairie chicken (LEPC) as “threatened” under the federal...more

Latham & Watkins LLP

The Department of the Interior does not list sub-population of greater sage-grouse as a threatened or endangered species, but...

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On April 21, 2015, Sally Jewell, the Secretary of the Department of the Interior, announced that a sub-population of greater sage-grouse along the California-Nevada border does not require Endangered Species Act protection....more

Bracewell LLP

Texas Environmental Update - February 28, 2014

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We are pleased to provide you with this issue of Bracewell's Texas Environmental Update, offering the latest news about permitting, enforcement, regulatory developments, and other matters of interest to the regulated...more

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