Senate environment committee Chairman John Barrasso (R-WY) is pledging to advance legislation to limit states' authority under Clean Water Act (CWA) section 401 to review federally permitted projects to determine their impacts on state water quality, despite strong opposition from Democrats and widespread concern from states.
AUSTIN, TX -- Pending litigation from 15 states and environmentalists to force the Trump EPA to issue first-time methane emissions standards for existing oil and gas equipment could, if successful, broadly force the agency to issue tougher Clean Air Act rules for several sectors, according to legal experts.
Environmentalists are pursuing a new strategy to challenge natural gas pipeline construction, filing at least two petitions with EPA alleging that two states' approvals of the pipelines violate the Civil Rights Act because the states did not consider whether the project's route would disproportionately impact disadvantaged residents.
Environmentalists are pursuing an EPA Environmentalists Appeal Board (EAB) case challenging Clean Air Act “synthetic” minor source permits that the agency's Region 8 issued for gas production operations on tribal land in Utah, part of a broader legal strategy to challenge drilling in the state that they warn is harming air quality.
In a significant loss for environmentalists, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit has upheld Virginia's Clean Water Act (CWA) section 401 certification for an interstate natural gas pipeline, finding the environmentalists' charges that the state's actions were arbitrary and capricious to be unfounded.
GOP senators on the environment committee have introduced legislation to amend when and how states can put water quality conditions on federal permits for energy projects, citing concerns about state abuses of the Clean Water Act (CWA) section 401 process -- even though some energy executives have said administrative changes may be more productive.
Environmentalists are asking Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to require opponents of the Obama EPA's Clean Power Plan (CPP) utility greenhouse gas rule to explain why the court's almost two-and-a-half year stay of the rule should remain in effect, noting that the legal challenges to the rule that prompted the stay have halted.
EPA has told federal energy regulators they no longer need to monetize the cost of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions when weighing natural gas pipeline's environmental impacts, likely giving the commission cover to defend its recent largely partisan decisions to approve pipelines without broadly quantifying their GHG and climate change impacts.
Environmentalists argue that former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt declined to penalize several oil and gas companies based in his home state of Oklahoma.
As Congress eyes legislation to limit states' Clean Water Act (CWA) power to block pipelines and other federally approved projects, energy industry officials say administrative actions may be more effective than legislative ones to address their concerns that states are using their CWA section 401 authority to improperly block such projects.
