Williams & Co. Stumble in Pipeline Project: Did NYS Just Create a Playbook?

Jamison Colburn Army Corps of Engineers, CWA Section 401, FERC, fracking, pipelines , , ,

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) is the authorized agency implementing New York’s Clean Water Act water quality standards. The extraordinary thing about these standards is that federal projects that might violate those standards cannot just be waived through by a federal agency in control. Only the authorized state can do that […]

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A Pipeline, A North Dakota Community’s Water, and the End of a NEPA Saga?

Jamison Colburn Bureau of Reclamation, pipelines, risk governance , , , ,

Unless you’re one of the 80K+ residents of northern North Dakota who’s been waiting on this project, you’d be forgiven for thinking we mean that other pipeline that got hung up on NEPA. This pipeline is a straw moving water from one watershed (the Missouri River basin) to another (the Hudson Bay basin). The proposal […]

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Jobs v. Wilderness? NEPA’s Role in Enforcing (Other) Environmental Laws

Jamison Colburn Army Corps of Engineers, mining, segmentation , , ,

The proposed Montanore mine in northwest Montana is a combined copper/silver behemoth, aimed at extracting some 12½ thousand tons of ore per day—virtually all of it from beneath the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness (CMW). This sort of mining is a dirty affair and the tailings and other wastes are a major concern in this project. (See […]

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The National Flood Insurance Program: Time to Weigh Some Alternatives?

Jamison Colburn climate change, FEMA, risk governance , , ,

When the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced in 2012 that it was beginning a scoping process on a “programmatic” environmental impact statement (EIS) for the national flood insurance program, heads didn’t exactly bob up and down in nervous excitement.  Indeed, that announcement seemed to coincide with a congressional probe and threats on Capitol Hill […]

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When a President Rescinds a Memo

Jamison Colburn CEQ Watch, climate change, risk governance , , ,

Among the provisions of President Trump’s executive order on climate change was this: Section 3(c) The Council on Environmental Quality shall rescind its final guidance entitled “Final Guidance for Federal for Federal Departments and Agencies on Consideration of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Effects of Climate Change in National Environmental Policy Act Reviews . . […]

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DAPL: The Winter of Trump’s Environmental Agenda?

Jamison Colburn Army Corps of Engineers, FONSI, judicial relief, pipelines , , ,

The world waits as the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals weighs the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s (SRST) appeal in their case opposing the Army Corps of Engineers’ approval of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) crossing Lake Oahe.  In the end, the argument on appeal comes down to a NEPA claim: that the Corps should’ve prepared […]

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What’s the Real Value of a Tony Washington Address?

Jamison Colburn CEQ Watch , , 1

The mainstream media may be too wrapped up in the White House’s latest flogging of egos and dignity to have noticed this little NEPA tremor yesterday: the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) was evicted from its ancestral digs on Jackson Place, kitty-corner to the White House across Lafayette Square.  CEQ has been at that address […]

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Standing Rock: See You in Court!

Jamison Colburn Corps of Engineers , , , ,

The Trump Administration ordered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to do exactly what we at the Lab said back in December would seriously undermine the credibility of the United States: it reversed the Corps’ decision regarding the necessity of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) crossing at Lake Oahe.  Earthjustice, […]

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When #MAGA Met NEPA: An Executive Order Without Style, Substance or Sting

Jamison Colburn bridge construction, CEQ Watch, wind turbines , , ,

On January 24th, President Trump issued one of his notorious executive orders (EOs)—this one to much less fanfare than some of the others.  It was brief.  It was surprisingly unnoticed by the media.  Yet it took aim at the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) so we here at the Lab were keen to take a […]

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What Else Is there to Say?

Jamison Colburn FONSI, oil, pipelines , , , 1

MoMa has an outstanding collection of twentieth century art (including Edward Ruscha’s antic classic OOF).  Which understatement deserves another: President-elect Donald J. Trump promises to bring the unexpected back to NEPA.  Indeed, Trump’s election has already given us one surprise: the Corps of Engineers’ decision yesterday to prepare a full impact statement on a right-of-way […]

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