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Monthly Archives: December 2016

Obama Withdraws Areas From Offshore Drilling Before End of Term

Wed Dec 28th, On Environmental Law, by

On December 20, 2016, in a Presidential Memorandum to the Secretary of the Interior, President Obama withdrew certain areas off the Atlantic Coast on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) from mineral and oil and gas leasing:  Consistent with principles of responsible public stewardship entrusted to this office, with due consideration of the critical importance of canyons along the edge of the Atlantic continental shelf for marine mammals, deep water corals, […]

American Farmers Weigh In On WOTUS Jurisdiction Question

Wed Dec 21st, On Environmental Law, by

The American Farm Bureau Federation and other industry groups have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Sixth Circuit decision to assert exclusive jurisdiction to review the controversial Clean Water Rule concerning the new definition of “waters of the United States.”  On Friday, October 8, 2016, the AFB filed a brief in the following case petitioning for writ of certiorari. In its brief, the AFB argue that the Clean […]

Environmental Battle Continues after Decision on Controversial DAPL

Fri Dec 9th, On Environmental Law, by

The Department of the Army will not issue an easement that would allow the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline to cross under Lake Oahe in North Dakota.  This is the latest ruling in a controversial legal battle that has been ongoing since July of this year that implicates provisions in the Clean Water Act (“CWA”), the Rivers and Harbors Act (“RHA”), the National Historic Preservation Act (“NHPA”), and the National Environmental […]

Expanding California’s Water Resources With Deep Groundwater

Tue Dec 6th, On Environmental Law, by

Deep groundwater aquifers, developed for oil and gas extraction, could yield important sources of water in California and elsewhere. Assessing groundwater quantity and quality requires baseline data and a monitoring framework for evaluating impacts. Stanford researchers have found that California’s Central Valley alone has close to three times the volume of fresh groundwater than previously estimated. The Stanford study is the first to measure California’s groundwater below 300 meters (the […]

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