Almost three years ago, I reported that the White House Council on Environmental Quality had issued the Final Recommendations of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force. Since that time, the Nation Ocean Council, formed by President Obama in Executive Order 13547, has been working diligently to prepare an agency roadmap to put the new National Ocean Policy into action.
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The Bureau of Land Management, Tribal Cultural Resources and Renewable Energy Development
By Allison Smith on
My collegue Michael O’Connell issued the legal alert below on a recent significant Interior Board of Land Appeals decision concerning the intersection of tribal cultural resources and a BLM geothermal lease application:
The Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA or Board) decision, Earth Power Resources, 181 IBLA 94 (May 12, 2011), deals with BLM action on a geothermal lease application in Nevada. Citing National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) section 304, 16 U.S.C. § 470w-3, BLM withheld from a geothermal lease applicant an ethnographic study of Ruby Valley that identified a tribal traditional cultural property (TCP) important to an Indian Tribe and disapproved the lease application in order to protect the TCP. The Board overturned BLM’s decision and remanded the case for further action.Continue Reading The Bureau of Land Management, Tribal Cultural Resources and Renewable Energy Development
National Hydropower Association Regional Meeting Underway in Juneau
By William H. Holmes on
Posted in Hydropower
Mary Jo Miller from our Portland office and Jonn Kauffman of our Anchorage office are in Juneau today and tomorrow attending the National Hydropower Association‘s Regional meeting, where Mary Jo is participating on a panel discussing funding mechanisms available for building hydropower projects. Mary Jo will present a case study describing the various loan…
Interior Secretary Salazar Invites Parties Interested in Cape Wind Project to Resolve Impact of Determination that Nantucket Sound Is Eligible for Listing as an Historic Property
By William H. Holmes on
Posted in Wind
Stoel Rives partner Michael O’Connell reports:
On January 4, 2010, the Keeper of the National Register determined that Nantucket Sound is a traditional cultural property (TCP) of two Indian tribes that is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, even though the area is submerged. The Keeper made that determination in response to a request from the Mineral Management Service (MMS), which is considering a request for a lease of outercontinental shelf land for 130 wind turbines for the Cape Wind Project. MMS and the Massachusetts State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO) disagreed on whether Nantucket Sound was eligible for listing.Continue Reading Interior Secretary Salazar Invites Parties Interested in Cape Wind Project to Resolve Impact of Determination that Nantucket Sound Is Eligible for Listing as an Historic Property
Is More Bad By-Product News Coming for Biofuels Producers?
By Graham Noyes on
Posted in Biofuels
The National Grain and Feed Association reports that at the International Feed Expo in Atlanta on January 27, Dr. Daniel McChesney of the Food and Drug Administration spoke about studies the agency has reviewed concerning distillers’ grains, the main by-product of ethanol, and glycerin, the main by-product of biodiesel.
Continue Reading Is More Bad By-Product News Coming for Biofuels Producers?