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Past issues Current issue
Kentucky Law Suits Dismissed According to the environmental groups, Kentucky’s state implementation plan (SIP) for meeting air quality standards was out of date, and as a result, EPA should have been required to object to the proposed projects, which had been approved under the Kentucky SIP. EPA disagreed, saying its ability to intervene in the state permitting process was discretionary. The court agreed with EPA, saying that the Clean Air Act did not create a meaningful standard by which to judge the agency, making it impossible for the court to review the agency’s actions. NMA Suit Among the allegations are that the EPA and the Corps have not complied with the formal rulemaking procedures and requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act, the Clean Water Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act as part of a deliberate policy to substitute agency “guidance” for formal rulemaking. NMA claims that EPA has usurped authorities clearly granted to the states and other federal agencies and has used technical benchmarks for assessing water quality that are both arbitrary and capricious. The result, says NMA, is essentially a moratoriam on mountaintop coal mining in Appalachia. Environmentalists Claim Oil and Gas Leasing of Public Land Violated NEPA In a move meant to attempt to curb oil and gas leasing on federal lands in the west, environmentalists are challenging the federal government's leasing of tens of thousands of acres of federal lands in New Mexico for oil and gas development. Specifically, in a lawsuit filed with the United States District Court in New Mexico, Amigos Bravos v. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), environmental groups claim leases signed by the federal government and oil and gas companies in 2008 to open more than 60,000 acres of federal land for oil and gas development must be set aside because officials did not quantify the impacts of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions resulting from these leases on global warming. This failure to weigh the potential GHG impacts of this oil and gas development is alleged to be a violation of provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 which requires federal agencies to assess the environmental impacts of their decisions, mitigate the impacts and consider less harmful alternatives prior to approving federal actions. If successful, global warming considerations and impacts would potentially have to be quantified and reviewed by federal agencies prior to any final determination on whether to approve a lease on federal lands. Such a decision could also impact newly approved federal leases for new domestic drilling operations in the west and other parts of the country. The precedent set by such a decision could also impact states who have enacted equivalent state NEPA statutes as well. The case comes as the White House Council on Environmental Quality is conducting a review of its standing guidance to federal agencies for how to address GHG impacts when conducting reviews under NEPA. New York State Senate Passes Moratorium on Hydraulic Fracing By a vote of 49-9, the New York State Senate passed Senate Bill 8129, which places a moratorium on the issuance of permits to hydraulically fracture wells in New York State until May 15, 2011. Passage of Senate Bill 8129 follows heated public meetings conducted by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (NYDEC) regarding its review and issuance of a Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) for oil and gas exploration addressing horizontal wells and hydraulic fracturing. The NYDEC has had a de facto moratorium in place regarding the issuance of permits using these technologies pending the issuance of the SGEIS. While the SGEIS was issued in draft form on September 30, 2009, the NYDEC has failed to take final action on the document. When the New York General Assembly reconvenes in the coming weeks, it is possible that it will be reviewing and taking action on Assembly Bill 11443, which contains identical language regarding a moratorium. The passage of Senate Bill 8129 and its margin of passage reaffirms that the campaign being waged by environmental groups to slow, if not stop, natural gas drilling in New York is resonating with the public, even though studies conducted in the past few years have shown the practice of hydraulic fracturing to be safe. If passed and signed by the Governor, either bill would postpone a potential revenue source for the New York State, which has an estimated budget deficit for fiscal year 2010-2011 of $9.2 billion. According to a study from Natural Resource Economics Inc., a company based out of Laramie, Wyoming, drilling revenue in New York could reach $1.9 billion in 2015 if drilling and exploration were allowed to proceed. AEP petitions Supreme Court re: GHG American Electric Power, Duke Energy Corp., Southern Co., and Xcel Energy Inc. have filed a petition asking the US Supreme Court to review a lower court ruling that would allow common law nuisance claims to be brought against power plants for their greenhouse gas emissions.
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