Recently the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued an important decision regarding the Clean Air Act (CAA) and the interactions between EPA and the states. On July 15, Fifth Circuit, in a unanimous ruling, granted a stay of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Final Rule promulgated in 2016…
Bi-partisan legislation has been introduced in the House of Representatives (H.R. 5685), known as the “Farm Regulatory Certainty Act,” a bill that would amend Resource Conservation and Recovery Act’s (RCRA) definition of “solid waste” (42 U.S.C. § 6903 (27)) to exclude “animal waste, manure, fertilizer, or constituents derived from such sources.” A recent…
On July 7, the U.S. District Court for Alaska decided the case of Castle Mountain Coalition, et al., v. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, holding that a mining permit issued under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) is terminated by operation of law if the mining activities…
On July 8, the Illinois Supreme Court, in Hampton, et al., v. Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, held that temporary flooding of the plaintiffs’ residential properties located in the Chicago area can be the subject of a “taking” for which they may be entitled to just compensation under the…
The issue of the relentless growth and penetration of administrative law remains a compelling topic for those operating in heavily regulated industries like the construction industry. Chris DeMuth, a Fellow at the Hudson Institute, recently wrote Can the Administrative State be Tamed?, an interesting essay in which Demuth provides his perspective on…
On July 5, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, in Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility v. Hopper, Acting Director of the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, reviewed the District Court’s dismissal of a lawsuit alleging that the Government’s approval of a Cape Cod offshore wind energy…
On July 5, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued an important ruling interpreting the reach of the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in the case of Competitive Enterprise Institute v. Office of Science and Technology Policy. The Office is located in the Executive…
This decision is reminiscent of a fairytale about a princess and her frog prince and the croaking chorus of the Frogs of Aristophane. On June 30, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a significant ruling involving critical habitat designations on private land. The case was decided…
Two recently issued decisions are important because they clarify how the formidably complex legal structure affecting a growing American business—the export of liquefied natural gas (LNG) –will be interpreted by the one federal Court of Appeals that has singular expertise in interpreting such requirements. On June 28, the U.S. Court of Appeals…
A recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit is a reminder to important federal agencies that they must take care to adhere to the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) when they issue not only new rules, but also other regulatory documents as well, and…