Today, my colleague Sheila McCafferty Harvey and I published our client alert discussing the House Rules Committee meetings this week during which the committee discussed resolutions for overturning regulations passed under the Obama Administration. The roll-back efforts could include key energy and environmental regulations, including the Bureau of Land Management’s new methane restrictions…
New directions in environmental and regulatory policy are outlined in these Executive Orders and Presidential Memorandums that have been issued in the past few days: An Executive Order, dated January 30, 2017, requiring federal executive departments and agencies, whenever they propose to add a new regulation, to delete two existing…
Today, my colleague Jay Silberg and I published our client alert discussing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) decision to consider revisions to applicable security and accountability regulations in response to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) sting operation which identified certain regulatory weaknesses. If adopted, these revisions could significantly affect the ability…
Something light for your Monday morning. On January 23, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma issued a ruling dismissing the plaintiff’s pro se complaint that the recycling practices of the Tulsa City-County Library Commission placed an “undue obstacle” on the plaintiff’s practice of “Environmentalism.” The case…
On January 11, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania decided the case of EQT Production Company v. Department of Environmental Protection of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and granted EQT Production Company’s (EQT) application for certain relief under the Declaratory Judgments Act, 42 PA. C.S. §§ 7531 et seq., with respect to the Department of…
Today, our colleagues Stacie Yee and Kimberly Higgins posted their client alert discussing a City of Los Angeles ordinance, effective January 22, barring certain private employers doing business in the city from inquiring about a job applicant’s criminal history until a conditional offer of employment has first been extended. Under the…
On January 12, the Supreme Court of the State of Washington issued a unanimous ruling holding that both the Court of Appeals and the state’s Shorelines Hearing Board (Board) had erroneously interpreted the state’s Ocean Resources Management Act, Rev. Code of Wash. §§ 43.143.005 et seq. (ORMA), as having no application to…
On January 19, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld the criminal conviction of Donald Blankenship, the former Chairman and CEO of Massey Energy Company (MEC), the operator of the Upper Big Branch Coal Mine in Montcoal, West Virginia. In April 2010, an accident at this mine resulted in…
In Brexit and Procurement, Pillsbury partner Tim Wright discusses the UK Government’s January 23 publication of a 132-page strategy green paper—or consultation document—entitled Building our Industrial Strategy. The paper sets out the Government’s “buy British” plan aimed at helping UK-based suppliers, supply chains and infrastructure companies when bidding for public sector contracts. The paper confirms…
On January 18, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed the lower court and held that EPA’s 2008 promulgation of the “Water Transfers Rule” (Rule) published in the Federal Register at 73 FR 33697 on June 13, 2008, was entitled to Chevron deference, and reinstated the rule. The regulation…