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
Earlier this week, my colleagues Adam Kahn and Kevin Chen posted about the proposed rule issued by the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service that would rescind the definition of “harm” under the...more
On April 17, 2025, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration published a notice of proposed rulemaking to rescind the definition of “harm” under the Endangered Species Act...more
On April 17, 2025, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) (collectively, Services) published a notice in the Federal Register proposing to rescind the Services’ respective...more
On Monday, January 13, 2025, California withdrew requests for Clean Air Act waivers from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) needed to support four recently adopted vehicle emissions regulations: 1) the Advanced...more
EPA Proposes Removing Affirmative Defense Provisions from Eighteen Clean Air Act Emission Standards - In a proposed rule published on June 24, 2024, EPA has proposed to remove eighteen affirmative defense provisions for...more
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to consider whether federal and state agencies must clearly define limits on wastewater pollution when issuing discharge permits. The high court took up the City of San Francisco’s...more
Over three years ago, the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gave Clean Water Act 404 permitting powers to the State of Florida. A few days ago, a judge at the U.S. District Court for the District of...more
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (“Service”) issued a pre-Federal Register publication final rule removing the snail darter from the federal Endangered Species Act (“ESA”) List of Endangered and Threatened...more
On Friday, June 24, 2022, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (the Service) finalized a rule rescinding the regulatory definition of “habitat,” as the term was used in the Endangered Species Act (the Act) and the various...more
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (“Service”) issued a pre Federal Register publication proposing to remove the Snail Darter from the Federal Endangered Species Act (“ESA”) list of endangered and threatened...more
Several decisions of interest were issued in the 2020 term, which stretched from October 2020 until early July 2021. This review will concentrate on environmental and administrative law cases....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
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
The federal courts have issued some significant environmental law rulings in the past few days. THE U.S. SUPREME COURT - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service v. Sierra Club, Inc. On March 4, 2021, the court held that the...more
The Biden administration has signaled its intention to recriminalize non-purposeful, or incidental, “takes” of birds under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (“MBTA”). The longstanding debate over the scope of criminal liability...more
A common tactic by competitors is to seek adversaries’ (or even supply-chain partners’) data that is maintained by the United States, an individual state, or even municipal governmental agencies. These efforts are meant to...more
On March 4, 2021, the US Supreme Court held that draft biological opinions prepared by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) were subject to the deliberative process privilege...more
Last week, in Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s first signed opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court expanded the deliberative process privilege under exception 5 of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), limiting litigants’ ability to...more
Today, the Supreme Court of the United States issued the following two decisions: United States Fish and Wildlife Serv. v. Sierra Club, Inc., No. 19-547: The Sierra Club submitted Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”)...more
Today, in U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service et al. v. Sierra Club Inc., Case No. 19-547, the United States Supreme Court struck down a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling that the federal government was required to turn over...more
On March 4, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court decided United States Fish and Wildlife Service et al. v. Sierra Club, Inc., holding that the deliberative process privilege exemption in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) protects...more
On Wednesday, December 16, 2020, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (the Service) finalized for the first time a regulatory definition for the term “habitat,” as the term is used in the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the...more
Comment period on FWS/NMFS proposal will close soon. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service have proposed that a definition of “habitat” be added to the Endangered Species Act. The...more
Decision creates difficult permitting challenges for oil and gas pipelines crossing jurisdictional waters. Oil and gas pipelines continue to face difficult permitting challenges as Ninth Circuit declines to revive vacated...more