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Energy and Environment Monitor

Energy

Sierra Club Targets Multiple Companies Under Clean Water Act

The Sierra Club and four other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) announced on June 4, 2019 that they are sending Notices of Intent to Sue (NOIs) nine companies in West Virginia and Pennsylvania in federal court for alleged violations of the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA).  The notices allege that a total of fifteen facilities owned by the…

Violating the Constitution in the Name of the Environment

The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that no private property shall be taken for public use, without “just compensation.”  West Virginia’s Constitution contains a similar prohibition.

But the West Virginia Department of Transportation (WVDOT) has felt compelled to violate this most basic right.  And, strangely, it has used environmental laws to do so.

The Background…

The Green New Deal Meets Physics

A new report by the Manhattan Institute explains that while greater efficiencies can be gained by electric generators using solar or wind energy, technology will soon bump up against hard stops in those efforts.  See The “New Energy Economy”: An Exercise in Magical Thinking (March 26, 2019).  https://www.manhattan-institute.org/energy-environment  For example, the so-called Betz limit will prevent…

House Delegates Introduce Environmental Constitutional Amendment

          On February 11, 2019, 32 Democratic Delegates cosponsored House Joint Resolution 25, dubbed the “Environmental Rights Amendment.”  The resolution proposes to amend the West Virginia constitution’s Bill of Rights by including a provision specifying that a clean environment is a constitutional right:

 

ARTICLE III. BILL OF RIGHTS.

§23. Natural Resources and the Public Estate.

The people have a right to…

A Christmas Present for All Who Use the Land

          The Environmental Protection Agency and Corps of Engineers delivered their long-awaited definition of “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) on December 11.  The pre-publication version of the rule released on that day marks the beginning of the end of one the most contentious issues in the history of American environmental law.  The new definition will “encompass relatively permanent flowing and…

U.S. Supreme Court Stays Kids' Climate Suit

On October 19, 2018, the United State Supreme Court temporarily stayed a suit filed against the President and various executive agencies brought by 21 minors, an organization known as Earth Guardians, and “future generations” by and through their self-appointed guardian, Dr. James Hansen, who is a well-known climate scientist and climate change activist.  See In Re United States of America, et…

Federal Court Rules that a West Virginia County Cannot Deny a Request to Re-Zone Property to Allow for Construction of a Natural Gas Compressor Station

          A federal district court in West Virginia ruled on Wednesday that Fayette County’s zoning code is preempted by the Natural Gas Act as it applies to Mountain Valley Pipeline’s FERC-approved activities in connection with a compressor station to be constructed in that county. See Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC v. Wender, et al., No. 2:17-cv-4377 (S.D.W.Va. Aug. 29, 2018), ECF No. 34. MVP obtained a…

"Strangled by Process"

          The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit decided a case involving the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 (MLA), an event sufficiently unusual that it merited a reading of the case. The MLA is the federal statute that governs the leasing of federal minerals, normally coal and oil and gas, on the public lands that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) administers, primarily in the Western U.S. The…

EPA Offices at Odds Over Response to FERC Greenhouse Gas Inquiry

          In December of 2017, FERC announced that it would review its policies on certification of natural gas pipeline projects.  In particular, it announced that it would review its 1999 Policy Statement on Certification of New Interstate Natural Gas Pipeline Facilities (available at https://www.ferc.gov/legal/maj-ord-reg/policy-statements.asp).  Then, on April 19, 2018, FERC initiated a “notice of…

EPA's SCIENTIFIC TRANSPARENCY RULE

Can’t We All Agree That Some Part of This is Good?         

           In April 2918, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unveiled its proposed rule on "Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science."  As proposed, the rule would limit EPA’s ability to write regulations based upon data that is not made available to the public. 

           Hearings on the proposed rule were held on July 27, 2018.  Feelings were…

Federal Courts on both Coasts Reject Cities' Efforts to Hold Oil Industry Responsible for Damages Caused by Climate Change

"The problem deserves a solution on a more vast scale than can be supplied by a district judge or jury in a public nuisance case." Judge William Alsup

          Last week, on July 19, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Judge John F. Keenan) dismissed the City of New York’s action against BP, Chevron, Conoco-Phillips, Exxon Mobile and Royal Dutch Shell seeking to recover…

 

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