The Council for Environmental Quality recently published proposed amendments to update the procedural regulations used to implement the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”). The proposed amendments were published in the Federal Register on January 10, 2020 and can be found here. The main goal of NEPA is to assure that federal agencies adequately consider the environmental impacts of major federal actions. This is primarily done through the completion of Environmental Assessments and Environmental Impact…

In Pavsek v. Wade, 18 MO 0024, Ohio’s Seventh District Court of Appeals considered whether a lessor must serve notice upon its lessee demanding that the lessee drill additional wells on the leasehold prior to seeking a partial forfeiture of the lease due to the lessee’s breach of the implied covenant of reasonable development. The Court held such notice is required if the lessee drilled a well on the leasehold that is currently producing in…

On November 29,2019, U.S. EPA issued a final rule redesignating the Ohio portion of the Stubenville Ohio-West Virginia nonattainment area from nonattainment to attainment of the 2010 SO2 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), pursuant to section 107(d)(3)(E) of the Clean Air Act. EPA determined that Ohio demonstrated that the area is attaining the SO2 standard due to permanent and enforceable SO2 emission reductions. The Agency also approved Ohio’s maintenance plan that will ensure the…

On November 26, 2019, USEPA published a guidance memorandum “Interpreting ‘Adjacent’ for New Source Review and Title V Source Determinations in All Industries Other Than Oil and Gas” (the November 26 Guidance).  In the November 26 Guidance, USEPA updated its interpretation of the regulations governing the scope of a “stationary source” under the NSR and Title V Clean Air Act programs.[1] Those regulations generally define a stationary source as “all of the pollutant-emitting activities…