A federal court has thrown out key Endangered Species Act (ESA) analyses of oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico, which will be vacated as of Dec. 20, 2024. The United States District Court for the District of...more
This morning our nation's highest court agreed to hear an appeal by seven Utah Counties and a railroad company of a DC Circuit Court of Appeals decision. That DC Circuit decision revoked the Surface Transportation Board's...more
For a decade, the U.S. Department of the Interior has wrestled with financial assurance (or bonding) requirements for offshore oil and gas companies. Over the last 10 years, the Interior Department has released – and later...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Nov. 14, 2023, dismissed claims brought by environmental groups challenging offshore oil and gas Lease Sale 261. The court ordered that the sale take place within 37 days of...more
The Biden administration has proposed changes regarding when oil, gas, and sulfur lessees and certain other parties operating in the offshore Outer Continental Shelf must post additional bonds or other “supplemental financial...more
On June 29, 2023, the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) published a proposed rule that, if adopted, would substantially revise the financial assurance requirements applicable to offshore oil...more
The U.S. Department of the Interior, through its Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), published a proposed rule on June 29, 2023, to significantly modify how the agency assesses the offshore oil and gas industry's...more
The federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) directs decommissioning of facilities located in federal waters of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) that are used in performance of oil and gas exploration...more
The Ninth Circuit vacated U.S. Department of the Interior approvals for a proposed offshore oil drilling and production facility in Alaska after finding its EIS improperly failed to consider impacts associated with foreign...more
With U.S. President Joe Biden taking office in January 2021, many energy industry participants have questions regarding how new federal policy may adversely affect oil and gas operators pursuing exploration and development...more
On March 29, 2019, the United States District Court for the District of Alaska issued its ruling in a case challenging a presidential executive order which would have reversed withdrawals of Outer Continental Shelf (OCS)...more
A federal court recently prohibited the U.S. Department of the Interior from approving any plans or permits for offshore fracking off the California coast until it complies with the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the...more
On September 27, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued its long-awaited opinion in the case of U.S. v. Moss, et al. The Fifth Circuit affirmed the District Court’s ruling that the Outer Continental Shelf...more
On July 15, 2016, the United States Department of the Interior Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) issued a new Notice to Lessees and Operators (NTL) dramatically changing the way in which BOEM will evaluate the...more
On July 7, almost a year and a half after the proposed rules were published, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s (DOI) Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE)...more
On May 27, 2016, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (“BOEM”) and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (“BSEE”) jointly released a Programmatic Environmental Assessment (“PEA”) for well stimulation treatment...more
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (“BOEM”) has backed away from its proposed rulemaking regarding financial assurance requirements for the Outer Continental Shelf (“OCS”). On August 19, 2014, BOEM published an Advance...more
Action Item: BSEE has proposed significant changes to BOP systems and well operations in light of the five-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon incident. Stakeholders in offshore oil and gas operations should carefully...more
In recent years, the energy industry has expressed significant interest in investigating submerged lands on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) in the Arctic for commercial quantities of oil and natural gas. The...more
On Thursday, Feb. 19, the Center for Biological Diversity (“CBD”) filed suit against the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (“BOEM”), the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (“BSEE”), and the Department of the...more
On Wednesday, January 28, as required by the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Director Abigail Ross Hopper announced the next step in the...more
On February 27th, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, in cooperation with NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries), and pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), released its final...more
On January 22, 2014, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the Final Environmental Impact Statement ("FEIS") and Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement ("SEIS") regarding the effects of...more