Climate change and invasive species are jeopardizing already endangered and threatened species, prompting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to finalize its 2023 rule allowing experimental populations to be introduced into habitat outside their historical range, as long as the areas are capable of supporting the experimental population.
Since passage of the early natural resource protection laws and regulations in the United States decades ago, legal, technical, and economic practitioners have been challenged with understanding the ever-changing and ever-evolving environmental law and policy landscape. Riveting changes have advanced the position of natural resources and related matters of conservation and biodiversity across domestic and international agendas, in corporate, government, and public interest agendas, and in the lives of everyday citizens.
BLM announced its intent to revise the Bureau's policies and procedures for compliance with NEPA, various executive orders, and CEQ's NEPA implementing regulations by proposing to remove four administratively established categorical exclusions (CEs) and to incorporate two CEs established by Congress.
EPA adopted DOE's categorical exclusion for methane gas recovery and utilization systems under NEPA.
NMFS listed the Atlantic humpback dolphin as endangered under the ESA.
EPA seeks comment on draft guidance to clarify and inform future NPDES permitting actions for communities with combined sewer systems.
FWS determined threatened species status under the ESA for the silverspot butterfly from Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah, and issued a rule under §4(d) under the Act to provide for the conservation of the species.
NMFS listed the queen conch as a threatened species under the ESA.
United States v. Lowell, Massachusetts, City of, No. 1:24-cv-10290 (D. Mass. Feb. 5, 2024). Under a proposed consent decree, a settling CWA defendant that allegedly engaged in unpermitted and illegal discharges from its wastewater collection system and small municipal separate storm sewer system must take measures necessary to achieve and maintain compliance and pay a $200,000 civil penalty for past noncompliance.
FWS announced a 90-day finding on a petition to list the Kings River pyrg as endangered or threatened under the ESA, finding that the petitioned action may be warranted and initiating a status review.