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Full-Text Articles in Law

Montana Wildlife Federation V. Bernhardt, Henry D. O'Brien Sep 2020

Montana Wildlife Federation V. Bernhardt, Henry D. O'Brien

Public Land & Resources Law Review

A federal court in Montana vacated the lease sale of several large oil and gas developments in Montana and Wyoming because BLM’s revised guidance documents, which facilitated the lease sales, failed to prioritize development outside of sage-grouse habitat, as required by BLM land use plans. BLM adopted the prioritization requirement in 2015 as part of an effort to prevent the sage-grouse from being listed under the Endangered Species Act. The court held BLM violated the Federal Land Policy and Management Act when it essentially eliminated the prioritization requirement and approved the lease sales without properly amending the land use plans.


Financing Our Future’S Health: Why The United States Must Establish Mandatory Climate-Related Financial Disclosure Requirements Aligned With The Tcfd Recommendations, Colin Myers May 2020

Financing Our Future’S Health: Why The United States Must Establish Mandatory Climate-Related Financial Disclosure Requirements Aligned With The Tcfd Recommendations, Colin Myers

Pace Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.


Citizens For Clean Energy V. United States Department Of The Interior, Anthony Reed Nov 2019

Citizens For Clean Energy V. United States Department Of The Interior, Anthony Reed

Public Land & Resources Law Review

In 2017, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke issued a new order lifting the previous administration’s 2016 Jewell Order that had placed a moratorium on mineral leases until a programmatic EIS was completed. The new order repealed the moratorium, cancelled the programmatic EIS, and instructed the BLM to expedite new mineral lease applications. Several plaintiffs challenged Zinke’s order, and the United States District Court for the District of Montana ruled that it was a major federal action that triggered NEPA analysis and that the agency acted arbitrarily and capriciously when it issued the order without any environmental review.


Maralex Resources, Inc. V. Barnhardt, Bradley E. Tinker Apr 2019

Maralex Resources, Inc. V. Barnhardt, Bradley E. Tinker

Public Land & Resources Law Review

In Maralex Resources v. Barnhardt, Maralex and property owners brought an action to protect private property from BLM inspections of oil and gas lease sites. The Tenth Circuit looked at the plain meaning of a congressional statute and held in favor of Maralex, finding that BLM lacked authority to require a private landowner to provide BLM with a key to inspect wells of their property. The Tenth Circuit held BLM has the authority to conduct inspections without prior notice on private property lease sites; however, it is required to contact the property owner for permission before entering the property.


Letting Go Of Stability: Resilience And Environmental Law, Robert L. Fischman Apr 2019

Letting Go Of Stability: Resilience And Environmental Law, Robert L. Fischman

Indiana Law Journal

Historic variation in the environment once served as a reliable guide to future behavior. Sustainability promised continuity of ecological and social structures and functions within the known envelope of historic variation. Now climate change and other environmental stressors are tipping systems into behaviors that no longer remain within the confines of precedent. Social-ecological systems are neither persistent nor predicable. Letting go of stability releases us from untenable expectations of steady maintenance of some natural order. Resistance to change will continue to play a role as environmental law suppresses disruptions and buys time. But resistance will eventually yield the stage to …


Western Organization Of Resource Councils V. Zinke, Daniel Brister Sep 2018

Western Organization Of Resource Councils V. Zinke, Daniel Brister

Public Land & Resources Law Review

Due to advances in climate science and an increased understanding of coal’s role as a greenhouse gas, Appellant conservation organizations sued the Secretary of Interior for failing to supplement the 1979 Programmatic EIS for the Federal Coal Management Program. The D.C. Circuit Court held neither NEPA nor the APA required a supplemental EIS and that the court lacked jurisdiction to compel the Secretary to prepare one. Expressing sympathy for the Appellants’ position, the D.C. Circuit took the unusual step of offering advice to future plaintiffs on how they might succeed on similar claims.


California V. United States Bureau Of Land Management, Molly M. Kelly Jan 2018

California V. United States Bureau Of Land Management, Molly M. Kelly

Public Land & Resources Law Review

After President Trump’s Executive Order No. 13783 encouraging relaxing regulatory burdens on energy production, the Bureau of Land Management reevaluated its 2016 “Waste Prevention Rule” which addressed waste of natural gas from venting, flaring, or other leaks resulting from oil and natural gas production activities. The BLM sought to postpone the Rule’s compliance date to give the agency time to promulgate a new rule—effectively overruling the 2016 Rule. Plaintiffs challenged the agency’s compliance under the Administrative Procedures Act, and the court found the BLM did not properly follow APA requirements.


Save Our Cabinets V. U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Jaclyn Van Natta Sep 2017

Save Our Cabinets V. U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Jaclyn Van Natta

Public Land & Resources Law Review

No abstract provided.