The U. S. House Committee on Natural Resources hearing held on Thursday, June 15, 2023, was singularly focused on H.R. 3397, sponsored by Rep. John R. Curtis (R-UT-3), which requires the Director of the Bureau of Land Management (“USBLM”) to withdraw its‘ Conservation and Landscape Health Proposed Rule. This is the second such committee hearing held […]
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On April 3, 2023, the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) published a proposed rule to promote the conservation of the 245 million acres of public lands it manages. The proposal purports to advance “BLM’s mission to manage the public lands for multiple use and sustained yield by prioritizing the health and resilience of ecosystems across […]
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by John W. Andrews On June 8, 2022, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued formal guidance[1] describing BLM’s policy for authorizing use of federal public lands for site characterization, injection, and geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide (CO2) for carbon capture and storage (CCS). BLM Instruction Memorandum 2022-041 (IM 2022-041) […]
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by John W. Andrews Everyone has heard a bad joke where the setup for the punchline is “well, it coulda been worse”. Hardrock mining companies operating on federal public lands presumably didn’t feel like laughing when the House Natural Resources Committee released its committee print for President Biden’s proposed “Build Back Better” (BBB) legislation in […]
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by John W. Andrews The omnibus appropriations legislation passed by Congress in December 2020 contained notable bipartisan energy initiatives, including extension of tax incentives for renewable energy development, energy efficiency, and energy storage. In light of Congress’ strong interest in addressing climate change, the energy package also focused on the capture of carbon dioxide from […]
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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 James P. Allen and Michael C. Ford The Rosemont Copper Project suffered a shocking setback with a July 31, 2019 order issued by the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona in Center for Biological Diversity, et al., v. United States Fish & Wildlife Service, et al. (4:17-cv-00475-JAS). In a nutshell, the Court ruled […]
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by Michael C. Ford A decade of lingering uncertainty for the mining industry regarding potentially billions of dollars in new regulatory compliance costs is now over (at least for now) as a result of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s recent decision in Idaho Conservation League v. Wheeler (No. 18-1141). EPA […]
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by Denise A. Dragoo On April 10, 2019, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order seeking to address permitting and policy obstacles preventing the export of coal and other energy resources through West Coast ports. New port facilities and improvements have been halted or delayed by state, local and tribal governments in California, Washington and […]
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by John W. Andrews Voters in several western states on November 6th defeated citizen-initiated ballot initiatives that would have heavily regulated mineral and energy development. The highest profile failed initiative was Colorado’s Proposition 112, which would have prohibited new oil and gas drilling within 2500 feet of any structure in the state, or within the […]
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