July 20, 2015
OSM has released its newly re-proposed Stream Protection Rule and accompanying Draft Environmental Impact Statement and Regulatory Impact Assessment. Links to the documents may be found here. Once published in the federal register, the public will have 60 days to comment.
The predecessor to this rule, the “Stream Buffer Zone” rule, was issued in 1983. In 1999, a federal judge in West…
July 10, 2015
We have previously reported on Murray Energy’s action against EPA in the Northern District of West Virginia. There, Murray has sued EPA to enforce § 321(a) of the Clean Air Act, which requires EPA to “conduct continuing evaluations” of potential loss or shifts of employment” which may result from the administration or enforcement of the Clean Air Act.
Recently, the District…
June 30, 2015
On Monday, in an opinion written by Justice Antonin Scalia, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency “strayed far beyond [the] bounds” of reasonableness by not considering costs in its decision to regulate emissions of hazardous air pollutants from fossil fuel-fired power plants. The case, Michigan vs. EPA, was decided 5-4, with Justices Scalia, Roberts, Kennedy,…
June 18, 2015
Mingo Logan Coal Company obtained a Clean Water Act § 404 permit from the Corps of Engineers in January 2007. The permit authorized fills associated with the Spruce Mine in Logan County, West Virginia. In January 2011, USEPA exercised its authority under CWA § 404(c) and “vetoed” the permit. Mingo Logan challenged the veto in the D.C. District Court, claiming both…
June 17, 2015
We have previously reported on Murray Energy’s action against EPA in the Northern District of West Virginia. There, Murray has sued EPA to enforce § 321(a) of the Clean Air Act, which requires EPA to “conduct continuing evaluations” of potential loss or shifts of employment” which may result from the administration or enforcement of the Clean Air Act.
Recently, the District…
June 12, 2015
In March 2014, Murray Energy sued EPA in West Virginia. Murray claimed EPA had failed to conduct “continuing evaluations of potential loss or shifts of employment which may result from the administration of” the Clean Air Act as required by Section 321(a) of that Act. In particular, Murray claimed EPA had not conducted the required evaluations of the effect of its programs on the coal…
March 27, 2015
By order dated March 11, 2015, the West Virginia Environmental Quality Board (“EQB”) affirmed an earlier order by WVDEP revoking a laboratory certification granted to Appalachian Laboratories (“AppLabs”). WVDEP issued the order on October 16, 2014 in response to press accounts that a former employee of AppLabs (John Shelton) had pleaded guilty to diluting or falsifying water samples…
March 27, 2015
The Sierra Club and its local partners previously petitioned EPA to withdraw its approval of the NPDES programs in at least Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia—largely over alleged deficiencies by the state agencies in handling coal-related permits. Earlier this year, when EPA did not formally respond to the petitions, the Sierra Club sued EPA in federal courts in Kentucky and West…
March 24, 2015
“This is the way the world ends, Not with a bang but a whimper.”
…
March 11, 2015
A federal court in Pennsylvania has ruled that a series of gas compressors used to move gas from wells to larger transmission lines need not be considered a single “source” of air pollution. See Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future v. Ultra Resources, Inc., No. 4: 11-cv-1360. If the eight compressors had been considered a single “source,” then they would likely have been…
July 20, 2015
OSM has released its newly re-proposed Stream Protection Rule and accompanying Draft Environmental Impact Statement and Regulatory Impact Assessment. Links to the documents may be found here. Once published in the federal register, the public will have 60 days to comment.
The predecessor to this rule, the “Stream Buffer Zone” rule, was issued in 1983. In 1999, a federal judge in West…
July 10, 2015
We have previously reported on Murray Energy’s action against EPA in the Northern District of West Virginia. There, Murray has sued EPA to enforce § 321(a) of the Clean Air Act, which requires EPA to “conduct continuing evaluations” of potential loss or shifts of employment” which may result from the administration or enforcement of the Clean Air Act.
Recently, the District…
June 30, 2015
On Monday, in an opinion written by Justice Antonin Scalia, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency “strayed far beyond [the] bounds” of reasonableness by not considering costs in its decision to regulate emissions of hazardous air pollutants from fossil fuel-fired power plants. The case, Michigan vs. EPA, was decided 5-4, with Justices Scalia, Roberts, Kennedy,…
June 18, 2015
Mingo Logan Coal Company obtained a Clean Water Act § 404 permit from the Corps of Engineers in January 2007. The permit authorized fills associated with the Spruce Mine in Logan County, West Virginia. In January 2011, USEPA exercised its authority under CWA § 404(c) and “vetoed” the permit. Mingo Logan challenged the veto in the D.C. District Court, claiming both…
June 17, 2015
We have previously reported on Murray Energy’s action against EPA in the Northern District of West Virginia. There, Murray has sued EPA to enforce § 321(a) of the Clean Air Act, which requires EPA to “conduct continuing evaluations” of potential loss or shifts of employment” which may result from the administration or enforcement of the Clean Air Act.
Recently, the District…
June 12, 2015
In March 2014, Murray Energy sued EPA in West Virginia. Murray claimed EPA had failed to conduct “continuing evaluations of potential loss or shifts of employment which may result from the administration of” the Clean Air Act as required by Section 321(a) of that Act. In particular, Murray claimed EPA had not conducted the required evaluations of the effect of its programs on the coal…
March 27, 2015
By order dated March 11, 2015, the West Virginia Environmental Quality Board (“EQB”) affirmed an earlier order by WVDEP revoking a laboratory certification granted to Appalachian Laboratories (“AppLabs”). WVDEP issued the order on October 16, 2014 in response to press accounts that a former employee of AppLabs (John Shelton) had pleaded guilty to diluting or falsifying water samples…
March 27, 2015
The Sierra Club and its local partners previously petitioned EPA to withdraw its approval of the NPDES programs in at least Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia—largely over alleged deficiencies by the state agencies in handling coal-related permits. Earlier this year, when EPA did not formally respond to the petitions, the Sierra Club sued EPA in federal courts in Kentucky and West…
March 24, 2015
“This is the way the world ends, Not with a bang but a whimper.”
…
March 11, 2015
A federal court in Pennsylvania has ruled that a series of gas compressors used to move gas from wells to larger transmission lines need not be considered a single “source” of air pollution. See Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future v. Ultra Resources, Inc., No. 4: 11-cv-1360. If the eight compressors had been considered a single “source,” then they would likely have been…
