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Coal Bed Methane Drillers Required to Treat Produced Water

July 22, 2010
Jeff Kray

The Montana Supreme Court has held that Montana’s largest producer of coal bed methane (CBM) must treat salty water extracted with the gas before discharging the produced water to surface water. The decision in Northern Cheyenne Tribe v. More »

Of Boiler Rules and Biofuels: Biomass Energy Faces New Emissions Restrictions, Regulation Under Waste Laws

July 22, 2010
Adam Orford

Air emissions rules proposed for boilers and waste incinerators threaten to disrupt the burgeoning biomass energy industry. Currently, biomass accounts for about 10 gigawatts of installed U.S. energy capacity. More »

A Day at the Beach: Supreme Court Plurality Recognizes Concept of Judicial Taking; Court Unanimously Concludes No Taking Occurred

July 14, 2010
Linda Larson

A plurality of the United States Supreme Court, purporting to redefine the application of the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, recently concluded that a decision by a state court of last resort may constitute a “taking” of private property without just compensation. More »

Design and Management of Stormwater System Enough to Impose CERCLA “Arranger” Liability, District Court Holds

July 14, 2010
Meline MacCurdy

In an apparent first, a federal judge in Washington has held a state agency that manages highway stormwater runoff liable under CERCLA[1] as an “arranger” for disposal of hazardous substances. In United States v. More »

EPA Issues Guidance for CAFOs on Scope of Clean Water Act Permitting, Plans Further Rulemaking

July 1, 2010
Meline MacCurdy

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently issued guidance to clarify the permitting obligations of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) under the Clean Water Act (CWA). More »

Ninth Circuit Overturns District Courts, Becomes Third Circuit to Allow Intervention in CERCLA Settlement Proceedings

June 28, 2010
Russell Prugh

On June 2, 2010, the Ninth Circuit held that a non-settling potentially responsible party (“PRP”) may intervene, by right, in settlement proceedings under the Comprehensive Environmental Recovery, Compensation, and Liability Act (“CERCLA”). This decision overturned the opposite position taken by district courts in the Ninth Circuit, and aligned the Ninth Circuit with two other U.S. More »

Supreme Court Reasserts Standard for Injunctive Relief in NEPA Cases

June 28, 2010
Steve Jones

Reversing a nationwide injunction, the United States Supreme Court reiterated the four-part standard for injunctive relief it announced in 2008, confirming that this same standard applies in cases arising under NEPA. In a 7-1 opinion[1] delivered by Justice Alito in Monsanto Co. v. More »

Despite Uncertain Presence of Species, Ninth Circuit Upholds Critical Habitat Designation for Mexican Spotted Owls

June 16, 2010
Jessica Ferrell

Earlier this month, a three-judge panel clarified Endangered Species Act (“ESA”) jurisprudence in the Ninth Circuit by articulating two rules for designating critical habitat. First, the U.S. More »

Regional Cap-and-Trade Programs Issue Recommendations for Standardizing Offset Programs

June 10, 2010
Dustin Till

With the fate of federal climate change legislation uncertain, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the Western Climate Initiative (WCI), and the Midwest Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord (MGGRA) continue to collaborate on options for link More »

EPA Issues Final Rule Regulating Greenhouse Gases From New and Modified Sources

May 14, 2010
Svend Brandt-Erichsen
Dustin Till

With a one-two punch, EPA on May 13, 2010 issued permitting requirements for larger stationary sources of greenhouse gases (“GHGs”), just one day after Senators Kerry and Lieberman released cap and trade legislation in the Senate [see related article in this Newsletter]. More »

Senate Climate Bill Introduced Amid Considerable Fanfare, and an Uncertain Future

May 14, 2010
Svend Brandt-Erichsen
Dustin Till

Senators Kerry and Lieberman released their much-anticipated cap and trade legislation on May 12, 2010. The Kerry-Lieberman bill takes its place alongside H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act (“ACES”), enacted by the House in June, 2009. More »

Fighting the Last War: The Relevance (and Irrelevance) of the Exxon Valdez Spill to the Deepwater Horizon Spill

May 5, 2010
Brad Marten

A number of us in the Pacific Northwest can remember the phone call that came in the spring of 1989 telling us to come to Alaska. There had been an oil spill, the caller said, and we had better get up there right away. We packed up and left, sometimes with just a couple of sets of clothes, and ended up staying for months, or years. More »

Post-Rapanos Rulings Continue To Bedevil Developers, Agencies, Courts and Congress

April 28, 2010
Brad Marten

It has been four years since the 2006 decision in United States v. More »

Congress To Consider Preemption of Regional Climate Pacts

April 19, 2010
Steve Jones

With Senators Kerry (D-Mass.), Graham (R-S.C.) and Lieberman’s (I-Conn.) climate change legislation reportedly set to be introduced later this month, a number of state officials have openly expressed concern about the effect the legislation might have on the existing cap and trade systems and regulations being developed by the regional climate change programs formed in the past few years by a n More »

EPA to Consider Ocean Acidification Under Section 303(d) of Clean Water Act

April 1, 2010
Linda Larson
Meline MacCurdy

EPA’s recent settlement of a lawsuit brought by the Center for Biological Diversity (Center) challenging the State of Washington’s failure to list coastal waters as “impaired” under § 303(d) of the Clean Water Act (CWA) due to reduced pH may put ocean acidification on the front line of emerging regulatory issues related to climate change. More »

Supreme Court Expands Intervention Rights to Private Water Users in Interstate Water Litigation

February 22, 2010
Jeff Kray

In a 5-4 decision, the United States Supreme Court opened the door last month to private water users to intervene in interstate water rights disputes. South Carolina v. North Carolina.[1] Over strong objections from Chief Justice John Roberts and U.S. More »

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