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Operation of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) hit a potential roadblock when a federal district judge ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) had approved the project without adequately considering the rights of the Sioux tribe living on the Standing Rock Reservation, which spans the North Dakota/South Dakota border near Lake Oahe. The pipeline […]
In his continuing effort to bring Department of the Interior (DOI) policies into step with President Donald Trump’s Executive Order on U.S. energy independence, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has issued another secretarial order of his own, this one to initiate reviews of federal and state plans affecting conservation of the greater sage-grouse.
Concerns about retirements of coal-fired and nuclear power plants—the traditional sources of baseload capacity—may be unnecessary. Moreover, the growth of renewable or variable energy resources (VERs), namely wind and solar, is reducing the need for conventional coal and nuclear operations to fill baseload needs and instead function more in load-following or peaking capacities. These are […]
A legal challenge to a project to extend an underground gas pipeline 30 miles in Pennsylvania and New Jersey involved the intersection of three federal statutes as well as state authority under the Clean Water Act (CWA).
Stating that it needs to review data developed by industry, the EPA has proposed to postpone compliance dates contained in the Agency’s effluent limitations guidelines (ELGs) and standards for the steam electric power generating point source category (November 3, 2015, FR). The EPA is requesting comment on how long the postponement should last while appearing […]
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has been echoing President Donald Trump’s claims that the administration is paving the way for a resurgence of the coal mining sector and the use of coal as a cheap, abundant, and reliable source of energy. In an article written for The Washington Times and posted on EPA’s News Release site, […]
A mere 4 months after President Barack Obama banned energy development in tens of millions of acres of the Arctic Ocean, President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order (EO) stating that leasing to energy companies in those areas will be resumed “to the maximum extent permitted by law.” The EO applies the same open leasing […]
The Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository in Nevada, a project essentially abandoned by the Obama administration, would get a new infusion of funding in President Donald Trump’s Budget Blueprint. Specifically, the president is requesting that Congress authorize $120 million to restart licensing activities for the project and also initiate a “robust interim storage program.”
Supporting coal mining through elimination of federal rules that hamper growth may be the biggest environmental deregulatory strategy so far advanced by the Trump administration. The President signed his March 28, 2017, Executive Order (EO) (Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth) with a group of coal-company executives and miners behind him and told them they […]
The heads of Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) have written to Energy Secretary Rick Perry, urging the Trump administration to preserve federal funding for the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) and State Energy Program (SEP).