Latest in: action agencies
When does a regulatory permission *cause* augmented GHG emissions from the expansion of fossil fuel markets? The D.C. Circuit seems to think it never does—at least for NEPA.
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Just out this week was BOEM’s encyclopedic environmental assessment (EA) of its planned area for exploring the leasing space...June 8, 2016
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Pick your Western metaphor and you can probably fit dams and fish on the great Columbia and Snake rivers...May 8, 2016
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Severe Accident Mitigation: When Shouldn’t Generic Analyses Suffice?
This post explains and critiques the D.C. Circuit’s decision on Tuesday to affirm NRC’s refusal to require a licensee to perform updated “severe accident mitigation alternatives” (SAMA) analyses as part of its re-licensing package. See Natural...April 30, 2016 289 0 -
Dominion Cove Point @ the D.C. Circuit: Wherever Causation Leads . . .
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) licenses the pipeline transport of natural gas pursuant to the Natural Gas Act and other authorities. Dominion Energy, Cabot Oil & Gas and others petitioned FERC for permission to convert...April 21, 2016 331 0 -
Must BLM Count Livestock Emissions in its NEPA Documents?
A recent “complaint” served on the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) by the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) argues that the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) been shirking its NEPA duties on climate change issues. ...April 14, 2016 443 0 -
A Good Plan Gone Bad?
Double crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) were once threatened with extinction by DDT. But when DDT use was phased out domestically the species rebounded dramatically. Today, though it is still a protected migratory species under the federal Migratory Bird...April 5, 2016 289 0 -
Climate Change and the Future of Oil/Gas Leasing Offshore
The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has braved rough seas since its creation in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The immediate past commitment to develop the plays off the coast of Alaska...March 29, 2016 370 0 -
A Standing Dilemma: For the Want of a Plaintiff, a NEPA Challenge Was Lost
According to Judge Bates of the U.S. District Court for D.C., National Wildlife Fed’n v. U.S. Army Corps of Eng’rs., 2016 WL 1048767 (D.D.C. 2016), the National Wildlife Federation’s NEPA challenge to a Corps of Engineers’...March 20, 2016 351 0 -
An Undeclared War on Wolves? Wildlife Services’ NEPA Debts Coming Due
Wildlife Services (WS)—the current name for a bureau within the Department of Agriculture (USDA)—annually kills between 1 and 5 million animals, all in the name of “wildlife control.” It has done so in one form or...March 4, 2016 458 0
