New York Passes Second-in-the-Nation Climate Change Superfund Act
On Thursday, December 26, 2024, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law the second-in-the-nation Climate Change Superfund Act (the “Act”). The Act had first passed the New York legislature in June 2024, shortly after Vermont’s Climate Superfund Act became law. See, Sidley Update.
District of North Dakota Halts Bureau of Land Management’s Venting and Flaring Rule
On Thursday, September 12, 2024, Judge Daniel Traynor of the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota granted a preliminary injunction sought by North Dakota, Montana, Texas, Wyoming, and Utah (the States) to halt the April 2024 “Waste Prevention, Production Subject to Royalties, and Resource Conservation” rule from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which mandates that oil and gas well operators on federal land flare rather than vent excess methane gas. The April 2024 rule revised a 2016 BLM rule that the District of Wyoming vacated in 2020. The States raised a number of challenges to the April 2024 rule, arguing that it exceeded BLM’s statutory authority under, or violated, the Mineral Leasing Act, Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Management Act, Clean Air Act, and Federal Land Policy and Management Act and was otherwise arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act.
U.S. EPA Issues Draft Final Oil and Gas Methane Rule
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a draft of its final oil and gas methane rule on December 2, 2023. It may be some time before the final rule is officially published in the Federal Register, starting the clock on the rule’s compliance obligations. Interested parties will need that extra time to fully digest the 1,690-page draft final rule, which addresses methane emissions from new (in subpart OOOOb) and existing sources (in subpart OOOOc). Here are some of the rule’s key aspects to consider. (more…)
U.S. Fifth Circuit Reverses EPA’s Denial of Fuel Program Hardship Exemption for Refineries
In Calumet Shreveport Refining LLC v. EPA, Case No. 22-60266 (5th Cir. Nov. 22, 2023), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit struck down Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) denials of six small refineries’ petitions for hardship relief under the Clean Air Act Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program, holding that EPA used an “impermissibly retroactive” standard to deny the refineries’ petitions in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act. This ruling could serve as a basis for other refineries to challenge EPA’s retroactive denial of their hardship petitions — and provides support for similar petitions pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
U.S. District Court Enjoins Biden Administration’s Nationwide Oil and Gas Leasing “Pause” Following Fifth Circuit’s Remand
On August 18, 2022, the federal district court for the Western District of Louisiana (the District Court) enjoined the nationwide pause of oil and gas leasing by the Biden administration (the Government). The District Court issued a permanent injunction just one day after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (the Fifth Circuit) vacated and remanded the District Court’s order by which the District Court had previously issued a preliminary injunction enjoining the pause.
U.S. Department of the Interior Releases Report on Federal Oil and Gas Leases
On November 26, 2021, the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) issued a long-anticipated report on federal oil and gas leases. The report focuses on the fiscal terms, leasing process, and remediation requirements of federal oil and gas leases. Notably, however, it does not discuss the possibility of banning new leases. (more…)