California Environmental, Energy, Resources & Land Use

Perkins Coie is pleased to announce that Arthur L. Haubenstock has joined the firm’s San Francisco and Washington, D.C. offices as a Senior Counsel in the Environment, Energy & Resources (EER) practice.

Perkins Coie is pleased to announce that Louise Adamson has joined the firm as Partner in the San Francisco office. She joins from K&L Gates.

Perkins Coie is pleased to announce the launch of the California Land Use & Development Law Report, which offers legal commentary on planning and development.

The Bureau of Land Management has issued a revised proposed rule for regulating hydraulic fracturing—or “fracking.”  On May 16, 2013, BLM issued a Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking revising its original regulatory proposal from a year ago.

The California Legislature adopted Section 25402.10 of the California Public Resources Code in 2007.

The California Supreme Court has unanimously upheld a local ban on medical marijuana dispensaries, holding that the ban was not preempted by state statutes governing medical marijuana.

In addressing an important legal issue of first impression, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s “veto” authority under Section 404(c) of the federal Clean Water Act (CWA) allowed it to revoke a fill permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, even after the permit had been issued to the project applicant.

According to the author’s April 23, 2013 press release, the amended version of Senate Bill 731 is a “comprehensive reform” of CEQA, “modernizing the law to aid California’s economic growth.”  But a close review shows that the bill would actually impose a new set of burdensome procedural requirements on CEQA lead agencies and project applicants.

On March 31, 2013, a magistrate judge with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in issuing several oil and gas leases without first adequately analyzing the impacts of horizontal drilling and multistage hydraulic fracturing (fracking).