By Michael Ford On Monday, December 4, 2017, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, Water Quality Division, kicked off a stakeholder process to discuss the potential for the state to seek primacy for two water-related regulatory programs: the Clean Water Act Section 404 (“404”) Permit Program, and the Safe Drinking Water Act Underground Injection Control (“UIC”) […]
By L. William Staudenmaier Several months ago, an earlier post in this blog described a decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that recognized a federal reserved water right to groundwater [see Ninth Circuit Holds that Federal Reserved Water Rights Extend to Groundwater]. The Ninth Circuit’s decision has very significant implications for water users […]
by Chris Colyer The status of a controversial rule establishing more stringent ambient air quality standards for ozone—promulgated by former President Barack Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—remains unclear following a series of developments under the current Trump Administration and the 115th United States Congress. Section 108 of the Clean Air Act requires EPA to identify, […]
by Richard J. McNeil The California Supreme Court’s recent decision in Banning Ranch Conservancy v. City of Newport Beach, ___ Cal. 4th ___ (2017) (Case No. S227473, Mar. 30, 2017) serves as a cautionary reminder that–as stated by the Court (citing Laurel Heights Improvement Association v. Regents of University of California, 47 Cal. 3d 376, […]
By Stephen Smithson At its core, agency deference – as enshrined in the United States Supreme Court’s decision, Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837 (1984) – is both reasonable and necessary. Indeed, in City of Arlington v. FCC, 133 S.Ct. 1863, 1868 (2013) (citations omitted), Justice Scalia explained why […]
By Mitch Klein Regardless of whether you are a Trump supporter or Trump hater, and there certainly seems to be very few people who are indifferent to the guy, trying to prognosticate what he will do is very difficult. He is a political outsider with no record of governance. We don’t know how much of […]
By Chris Colyer As previously reported here, President-elect Donald Trump’s victory could have profound implications for federal environmental regulation. Although the scope of the intended regulatory changes remains uncertain, President-elect Trump’s recent Cabinet nominations—most notably Scott Pruitt as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Rick Perry as Secretary of Energy, and Ryan Zinke as Secretary […]
by Chris Colyer The United States Supreme Court ruled today that an approved jurisdictional determination under the Clean Water Act constitutes an immediately appealable agency action under the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. §§ 500 et seq. This decision, United States Army Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes Co., Inc., rejects the United States Army Corps […]
by J. Matthew Derstine Last week Peabody Energy announced that it filed bankruptcy. Peabody is the nation’s largest coal company. The filing by Peabody comes on the heels of the January 2016 bankruptcy filing by Arch Coal, the nation’s second largest coal producer. Over 26 coal companies have gone bankrupt in the past several years […]
by Sean M. Sherlock Harry Rogers owned and operated a horse boarding facility called the Stock Farm, in the City of Poway, California – a city that proudly calls itself the “City in the Country.” Rogers wanted to shut down the Stock Farm and subdivide his land into residential lots. Not surprisingly, some of the […]
