In advance of holding an offshore wind lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico, which is expected this summer, the Department of Interior recently took several steps to update the offshore wind regulatory framework. First, Interior issued a Final Rule, which reassigns the responsibilities for certain regulations governing offshore wind from BOEM to BSEE. This reassignment aligns
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), signed into law on November 15, 2021, amended Section 40307 of the Outer Continental Shelfs Act (OCSLA) to provide authority to the U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) to grant leases, easements, or rights of way that “provide for, support, or are directly related to the injection of a
In a recent decision, the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals remanded to state court a case brought by landowners against the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (“LDEQ”) and several past and present owners and operators of an industrial facility (“Facility Defendants”), finding that LDEQ was not improperly joined, and therefore the case could
Over the past year, the U.S. Department of Interior has taken several important steps toward making wind energy development a reality in the Gulf of Mexico. This is the first in a series of articles in which Liskow’s offshore team will discuss the regulatory framework for wind energy projects in federal waters and highlight legal
On September 14, 2022, the 19th Judicial District Court revoked air permits issued by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (“LDEQ”) under Louisiana’s Prevention and Significant Deterioration (“PSD”) regulations[1] for a Formosa Plastics facility (“FG LA”) planned to be built in St. James Parish.[2] The court ruled that LDEQ erred in issuing
In a unique twist on a common challenge to the deductibility of post-production expenses, plaintiffs in Grayson L.L.C. (Of Louisiana), et al. v. BPX Operating Co., et al. sued the unit operator for breach of contract to recover transportation costs incurred as a result of alleged regulatory violations of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (“FERC”)
In a recent opinion released by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the court declined to vacate a deficient environmental impact statement (“EIS”) prepared in connection with two offshore lease sales held in 2018, the records of decision announcing the sales, or the leases issued.
The court stated that
On August 30, 2022, the Texas Railroad Commission approved proposed regulations relating to Class VI wells utilized for injecting and sequestering carbon dioxide in geologic formations. This is an important step towards obtaining primary enforcement authority (or “primacy”) over the Safe Drinking Water Act Underground Injection Control (“UIC”) Class VI well permitting program, which currently
In a recent blog post, we discussed a proposed ordinance before the Livingston Parish Council to ban injection and disposal wells in Livingston Parish. Yesterday, the council unanimously voted to pass the ordinance, which places a one-year moratorium on injection and disposal wells. To read more, click here.
Disclaimer: This Blog/Web Site is made
Last week, the Livingston Parish Council introduced a proposed ordinance that would place a moratorium on “the construction of disposal wells and injection wells in the Parish of Livingston.”[1] Although not limited to Class VI injection wells—which are those wells utilized for the injection and permanent sequestration of carbon dioxide—the proposed ordinance is clearly