Court Of Appeals News

Dominion Energy has announced that any reports that the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project has been delayed are false and grossly misrepresent the facts.“On April 29, anti-wind groups filed a petition in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia seeking to delay CVOW construction using the same meritless arguments as have already been rejected before by the courts, including last week by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in relation to an offshore wind project in Massachusetts.

Oil and gas companies and environmental groups on Monday filed dueling legal challenges to the Biden administration's five-year plan to offer drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico.The petitions to a U.S. appeals court come four months after the Interior Department unveiled a congressionally-mandated plan for offshore leasing that included just three sales, the lowest since the government began publishing the schedules in 1980.The American Petroleum Institute, an oil and gas trade group…

This article examines 10 structural safeguards in Coast Guard Suspension and Revocation (S&R) Proceedings that ensure Coast Guard Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) decisional independence. These safeguards separate potential agency influences from the ALJ decision making process and are critical to mariner due process and fundamental fairness. We will start with an overview of Coast Guard S&R proceedings, followed by brief discussions of the Administrative Procedure Act, Administrative Law Judges, and U.S. Office of Personnel Management oversight.

A U.S. court has removed an emissions permit for Sempra's Port Arthur LNG export terminal in Texas, potentially halting construction of the facility.In its decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Tuesday found that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) failed to impose the same emissions limits on the Port Arthur plant as on other projects, including the Rio Grande LNG project which is now under construction.The approximately 13.5 million-metric…

A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday ordered that a postponed federal auction of drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico be held within 37 days, a setback for environmentalists seeking expanded protections for the endangered Rice's whale.According to court papers, the New Orleans-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit dismissed an effort by four green groups to block an expansion of the sale ordered by a lower court judge in September.The judges said the groups lacked standing to challenge the September decision.

A U.S. appeals court on Thursday temporarily paused a federal judge's order last month that had required the Biden administration to expand a planned offshore oil and gas auction in the Gulf of Mexico by 6 million acres (2.4 million hectares).The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit stayed the September decision pending an appeal, according to a court document. Oral arguments are scheduled for Nov. 13 in New Orleans.The order was the latest in a legal fight over offshore drilling and federal protection of an endangered species of whale.

A U.S. judge has rejected challenges to federal environmental permits and construction approvals for a $4 billion offshore wind farm near Massachusetts, which commercial fishing groups have claimed will harm whales and impair their businesses.U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston last Thursday tossed the final two federal district court lawsuits directly challenging the Vineyard Wind project roughly 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, which would be the first commercial…

The U.S. Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) said on Tuesday it will postpone its next sale of oil leases in the Gulf of Mexico.The agency said it will not hold Lease Sale 261 on September 27, 2023, as originally planned as a result of last week's ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ordering an expansion of acreage being offered after BOEM earlier reduced the area in an effort to protect an endangered whale species."The order allows time for a more orderly lease sale process…

A federal appeals court on Tuesday revived a lawsuit against Royal Caribbean Cruises by the parents of an 18-month-old girl who died after slipping through her grandfather’s hands and falling through an open cruise ship window.The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta restored two negligence claims over the July 2019 death of Chloe Wiegand, who had been in a children’s play area aboard the ship Freedom of the Seas, which was docked in San Juan, Puerto Rico.Her grandfather Salvatore Anello testified that he picked Chloe up and put her feet on the windowsill…

A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday rejected a lawsuit filed by environmental groups challenging federal approvals needed to construct a $39 billion project that would move natural gas from Alaska’s North Slope across the state.A three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's review of plans for the state-run Alaska Gasline Development Corp's project satisfied the National Environmental Policy Act requirements to take a hard look at environmental impacts of major proposals…

The Biden administration needs until the end of this year to finalize a long-awaited five-year plan for offshore oil and gas development in federal waters, according to court documents filed this week.The U.S. has been without a congressionally-mandated five year schedule of offshore oil and gas auctions since the previous one expired in June 2022. The process is being closely watched by the oil and gas industry, which has pressed for more leasing to boost domestic fuel supplies, and by environmentalists, who say drilling conflicts with President Joe Biden's promise to fight climate change.

An oil rig supervisor who earned more than $200,000 a year working for Houston-based Helix Energy Solutions Group Inc is entitled to overtime pay, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday in a decision with costly implications for the oil and gas industry.The court in a 6-3 decision authored by liberal Justice Elena Kagan decided that because the rig supervisor, Michael Hewitt, was paid a daily rate of $963 and not a salary, an overtime pay exemption in federal wage law for highly paid workers did not apply to him.The justices affirmed a 2021 ruling by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will modify the Department of the Army permit for the BP Cherry Point Marine Terminal’s North Wing dock to ensure complies with the Magnuson Amendment’s restrictions regarding the handling of crude oil at Puget Sound facilities, and Endangered Species Act and other applicable legal requirements through additional permit conditions. This comes from the Record of Decision issued Monday, following completion of a Final Environmental Impact Statement…

U.S. federal Maritime Commission Chairman Daniel B. Maffei announced Phillip C. “Chris” Hughey has been hired as the General Counsel of the Federal Maritime Commission and appointed to be a member of the Senior Executive Service.In his capacity as General Counsel to the Commission, Hughey will provide legal advice and recommendations to the Chairman and Commissioners on regulatory and policy matters. He will serve as a member of the agency’s senior management team and will also…

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Thursday rejected a bid by a businessman to block his extradition to South Korea to face embezzlement charges that stemmed from a 2014 ferry sinking that killed 304 people.Sotomayor rejected Yoo Hyuk-Kee’s request to prevent his extradition from going forward while he appeals lower-court rulings rejecting his effort to avoid being sent to South Korea to face trial on the seven embezzlement charges against him.Sotomayor is the justice assigned to review emergency appeals from a group of states that include New York…

A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday vacated a lower court's decision to block the Biden administration's pause on new oil and gas leasing on federal land and waters - a key piece of the president's climate change strategy - and sent the case back to that court for further proceedings.The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the Louisiana district court decision to block the Interior Department's leasing pause after Louisiana and a dozen states sued the administration established…

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has released the Final Environmental Impact Statement for the North Wing of the BP Cherry Point Marine Terminal, which is located near Ferndale, Wash. The Notice of Availability was published in the Federal Register by the Environmental Protection Agency today.The Final EIS examines the incremental environmental effects related to operation of the North Wing of the BP Cherry Point Marine Terminal, the risk of potential accidents and oil spills within a portion of Puget Sound…

Cheniere Energy Inc has asked the Biden administration to exempt it from limits on emissions of cancer-causing pollutants, arguing they would force the top U.S. exporter of liquefied natural gas to shut for an extended period and endanger the country's efforts to ramp up supplies to Europe, according to documents reviewed by Reuters.The request imposes an uncomfortable dilemma on President Joe Biden’s administration as it tries to balance efforts to slash pollution from the fossil…

Iran expects an oil cargo confiscated by the United States off the coast of Greece to be returned in full, Tehran's ambassador to Athens said on Thursday, following a Greek court ruling quashing the original decision to confiscate it.The case arose when Greece in April impounded the Iranian-flagged Lana, formerly Pegas, with 19 Russian crew members on board, near the island of Evia due to European Union sanctions.The ship was released due to complications over its ownership. The United States in May confiscated part of the Iranian oil cargo onboard…

A federal appeals court on Wednesday revived a fight between BP, two contractors, and an insurance company over who should pay for thousands of personal injury claims brought by cleanup workers after the Deepwater Horizon explosion and fire in 2010.The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed most of a lower court’s rulings for contractors National Response Corp and O’Brien’s Resource Management, and for O’Brien’s excess-liability insurer, Navigators Insurance Co.The decision was not a complete win for BP, however.

A U.S. appeals court on Thursday said workers who use cranes attached to boats to load equipment onto offshore oil rigs are not "seamen" exempt from overtime pay under federal wage law, reviving a collective action against liftboat operator All Coast LLC.The full 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 15-2 to deny en banc review to All Coast and reinstated a three-judge panel's unanimous February ruling that said the workers were engaged in industrial activities that had no bearing…

A federal appeals court late on Friday reversed course and let stand a lower court order prohibiting the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from enforcing coronavirus-related cruise ship rules in Florida.The decision is a win for Florida that had filed a lawsuit arguing the CDC curbs made it tough for the cruise industry to recover from the pandemic.The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta had only on Saturday voted 2-1 to block the lower court decision.But in its latest brief statement…

A federal appeals court on Tuesday confirmed bans on offshore oil leasing in most federal Arctic waters and in the Atlantic after the Trump Administration tried to open them up to development.The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said President Joe Biden's reinstatement of Obama-era protections makes moot the previous administration's attempts to allow oil development there.The Trump administration pressed for oil-and-gas development throughout the United States as the nation's crude production surged to a record 13 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2019.