Modrall Sperling Shareholder Roberta Cooper Ramo remembers Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court, in a recent article in the Albuquerque Journal. Read the full article here The post Roberta Cooper Ramo Remembers Sandra Day O’Connor appeared first on Modrall Sperling Law Firm ..read more

In his first week in office, President Biden and administration officials have issued various Executive Orders, memoranda and other agency directives reversing previous Trump Administration policies and/or establishing new policies for federal agencies, which some have characterized as a fossil fuel freeze. Included in these are federal directives specifically affecting the oil, gas, mining, and renewable energy sectors. These executive actions include: I. Suspension of Delegated Authority to BLM District Offices to Approve Permits, Rights of Ways, Easements and Other Actions.    a ..read more

Introduction and Setting           On June 16, 2020, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia wrote what could be the last chapter in a long-running dispute over an oil and gas lease issued by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) in 1982 (“Solenex Lease”) for lands in the culturally-significant and environmentally-sensitive Badger-Two Medicine Area (“Two Medicine Area”) in Montana, administered by the U.S. Forest Service (“USFS”).  The D.C. Circuit reversed the district court and upheld the BLM’s long-delayed cancellation of the Solene ..read more

The United States District Court for the District of Montana breathed partial life back into Nationwide Permit 12 (NWP 12) in its May 11, 2020 decision limiting the scope of its April 15, 2020 vacatur of NWP 12 to new construction of oil and gas pipelines. The order reinstates NWP 12 for authorization of dredge and fill activities in Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act (CWA) for projects such as electric transmission lines, fiber optic and internet cables and lines, and maintenance and repair activities, but retains the vacatur and injunction of authorizati ..read more

On May 25, 2023, a majority opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) in Sackett v. EPA et al., authored by Justice Alito and joined by Justices Thomas, Roberts, Gorsuch and Barrett, held that the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Army Corps of Engineers (the Corps) to regulate wetlands pursuant to the Clean Water Act (CWA) is limited to adjacent wetlands that are “indistinguishable” from streams, oceans, rivers and lakes that are considered waters of the United States due to a continuous surface connection.  Justice Kavanaugh filed an opinion con ..read more

On December 30, 2022, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) and Department of the Army jointly announced their latest final rule (the “2022 Rule”) on the definition of “waters of the United States” (“WOTUS”) under the Clean Water Act’s authority to regulate activities in Navigable Waters, which are comprised of WOTUS.[1] The Clean Water Act delegates regulatory implementation to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (“Corps”) and EPA. The scope and extent of WOTUS is not defined in the statute, and the agencies and courts have wrestled with its scope and extent since the Act was enacted ..read more

On October 25, 2022, the New Mexico Court of Appeals held in Castillo v. Allstate Property and Casualty Insurance Company, 2022-NMCA-____ (No. A-1-CA-39107, filed Oct. 25, 2022) that a Polaris Ranger RZR, an all-terrain vehicle, was an off-highway motor vehicle that was not subject to the New Mexico Mandatory Financial Responsibility Act (“MFRA”) and, accordingly, the insurer was not required to offer uninsured/underinsured (UM/UIM) coverage in an off-road vehicle policy for the RZR.  Castillo was in a motor-vehicle accident in which she sustained injuries.  An arbitration panel awar ..read more

Stuart R Butzier Modrall Sperling, Santa Fe sbutzier@modrall.com   Darrell W Podowski Cassels Brock & Blackwell, Vancouver dpodowski@cassels.com   Bastida, Ana Elizabeth, The Law and Governance of Mining and Minerals: A Global Perspective (Hart Publishing 2020), ISBN 9781849463454 (hardback), published as Volume 3 of the series Global Energy Policy (P Cameron, P Bekker and V Roeben, series editors). In her ambitiously conceived recent book, The Law and Governance of Mining and Minerals: A Global Perspective, Dr Ana Elizabeth Bastida, a senior lecturer at ..read more

*This article is authored by Roberta Cooper Ramo with Seth J. Barany, Alicia Ubeda Harvey, Nicole T. Russell, Haley B. Adams, Jamie L. Allen, and other Modrall Sperling attorneys.   Modrall Sperling strives to be a resource for our clients as they strategize how to safely continue their businesses amidst the ever changing landscape of COVID-19 regulations. In these articles, we endeavor to provide answers to frequently arising questions and provide resources to our clients. Please note that the law, the regulations, and judicial interpretations are in a constant state of flux. B ..read more

*This article is authored by Roberta Cooper Ramo with Seth J. Barany, Alicia Ubeda Harvey, Nicole T. Russell, Haley B. Adams, Jamie L. Allen, and other Modrall Sperling attorneys.   Modrall Sperling strives to be a resource for our clients as they strategize how to safely continue their businesses amidst the ever changing landscape of COVID-19 regulations. In this article, we endeavor to provide answers to frequently arising questions and provide resources to our clients. Please note that the law, the regulations, and judicial interpretations are in a constant state of flux. Bef ..read more