On September 11, 2015, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana issued a significant ruling holding that CERCLA’s “Petroleum Exclusion” applies to the release of crude oil and any quantities of benzene, toluene and xylene present in this crude oil resulting from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill…
On September 4, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued an important ruling concerning the scope of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, 16 U.S.C. § 703 (MBTA), and the federal government’s use of an EPA rule regulating the operation of petroleum refinery wastewater treatment systems in…
On September 1, 2015, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas issued a ruling which vacates the April 2014 listing of the Lesser Prairie Chicken (LPC) as a threatened species pursuant to the Endangered Species Act. The case is Permian Basin Petroleum Association, et al. v. Department of…
On August 30, 2015, U.S. District Court Judge Lynn Hughes of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas issued an opinion dismissing the Government’s lawsuit asserting that Thomas Lipar, a real estate developer, violated the Clean Water Act by discharging fill material into jurisdictional wetlands without a permit. According…
On August 27, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit issued a Clean Water Act (CWA) ruling affirming the decision of the lower court that STABL, Inc. the former owner and operator of a rendering plant in Lexington, Nebraska, violated the CWA and the Nebraska Environmental Protection Act. …
On August 21, 2015, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, presiding over a Clean Air Act (CAA) enforcement proceeding, granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss several alleged violations of the CAA on the basis that the prosecution of these violations was time-barred. The case is U.S.…
On August 27, 2015, the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota, Southeastern Division, issued a preliminary injunction enjoining the new rule jointly promulgated by EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers redefining “Waters of the United States,” which is a linchpin of federal regulatory jurisdiction under the Clean…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a ruling Friday in the case of ONRC Action v. United States Bureau of Reclamation. Affirming the district court, the Court of Appeals held that the transfer of water into the Klamath River by means of the Klamath Straits Drain, as…
On August 19, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a ruling discussing the impact of New York State’s “Fracking Moratorium” on some existing oil and gas leases. The case is Beardslee, et al., v. Inflection Energy, LLC, et al. The Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s…
In the latest ruling in the case of National Association of Manufacturers, et al., v. SEC, a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia held today that the Secuiety and Exchange Commission’s “conflict minerals” rule’s compelled disclosures—affecting the acquisition of certain minerals produced in the…