by Sean M. Sherlock A recent court of appeal opinion out of San Diego demonstrates how the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) has once again been used to impede housing development—this time to the benefit of a high-end luxury spa. For CEQA practitioners the case provides two important lessons. First, it demonstrates how a permitting […]
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by Mitchell J. Klein The EPA and the Corps of Engineers are seeing an unprecedented amount of requests for determining whether or not an activity impacts a Water of the United States and triggers Clean Water Act restrictions and permitting. As the lawsuits challenging the current rule begin to move forward, and the current administration […]
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by Patrick J. Paul Declaring that the days of a one-size-fits-all approach to environmental remediation are over, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on September 2, 2020, the creation of a new office Mountains, Deserts, and Plains (OMDP). This new office will have jurisdiction over mining and environmental issues unique to those states west of […]
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by Patrick J. Paul On August 20, 2020, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act (AMMA) required the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) to issue at least one medical marijuana license in counties without a dispensary. The AMMA requires that an individual or entity must apply to ADHS for a […]
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by Patrick J. Paul Traditionally, Labor Day weekend in the United States means “back-to-school.” In this pandemic year, however, many schools remain closed indefinitely to in-person learning, while others opened early with the goal of completing the semester coincident with Thanksgiving break in November, thus limiting travel and the potential for future spread. As educational […]
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by Raymond S. Heyman We are just weeks away from the national Presidential election. The two major party candidates, President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joseph Biden, could not be farther apart philosophically than they are on the important issues of climate change and environmental stewardship. President Trump’ s position is summarized in the […]
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by Amanda Reeve As of August 10, 2020, with the signing of Secretary’s Order 3382 by the U.S. Secretary of Interior David Bernhardt, Grand Junction, Colorado is officially the new home to the headquarters for the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”). Since its inception in 1946, the BLM has been headquartered in Washington, DC; yet […]
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by Lucas J. Narducci and Amanda Reeve There is no question that the Coronavirus Disease 19 (“COVID-19”) pandemic has been taking its toll on public health, and it is doing so in more ways than some folks may be aware. Environmental programs which are instrumental in protecting the public health in Arizona; but are statutorily […]
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by Patrick Paul, Chris Colyer, Michael Ford In prior blogs (available here and here), we’ve reported on changes to certain federal and state environmental enforcement policies related to COVID-19. In a nutshell, these policies essentially clarified the enforcement priorities of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and certain other state agencies like the Arizona Department […]
by John W. Andrews On Thursday, May 28, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit declined to stay on appeal a lower court ruling which has already had a nationwide impact on permitting of oil and gas pipelines that cross streams and wetlands. The underlying dispute arose from the long-standing controversy over […]
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