Environmental and Natural Resources

Environmental Groups’ Push to Impose Additional Financial Assurance Requirements on the Hardrock Mining Industry Rejected by the D.C. Circuit

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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Voter Initiatives to Limit Mineral Development in Western States Fail

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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JA

EPA Reverses Course; Declines to Impose CERCLA Financial Responsibility Rules on the Hardrock Mining Industry

by John D. Burnside In a stunning change of course, the United States Environmental Protection Agency announced on December 1, 2017, that it would not issue final regulations imposing financial responsibility requirements on hardrock mining operations to fund the estimated cost of future Superfund cleanup. EPA’s decision effectively withdraws proposed rules published January 11, 2017, […]

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