QUESTION PRESENTED Did FERC’s issuance of an Environmental Assessment (EA) and corresponding Finding of no Significant Impact (FONSI) for Maryland Gas’ “400 Line” pipeline project violate NEPA? Should the Sierra Club sue FERC over this issue? SHORT ANSWER Yes. FERC’s EA violated NEPA’s requirement to consider the cumulative and indirect impacts of a proposed project. While FERC did consider some indirect impacts of the 400 Line project, FERC failed to analyze the 400 Line in conjunction with two connected pipeline projects: the 500 Line and the 600 Line. FERC’s fragmented analysis violates NEPA’s requirement that environmental review consider “interdependent parts of a larger action” (40 C.F.R. § 1508.25a). Other potential objections to FERC’s EA, including the project’s effects on endangered species and FERC’s failure to analyze certain alternative arrangements, have a smaller and less certain likelihood of legal success. FERC provided a reasoned explanation for most of their choices, and will thus receive generous deference from any reviewing court on those issues. FERC, though, failed to mention either of the two related pipeline projects in the EA, so the Sierra Club will have a strong case that FERC did not meet the requirement, cited in Robertson v. Methow Valley Citizens Council, 490 U.S. 332 (1989), to take a “hard look” at the environmental consequences of the 400 Line pipeline. FACTS See prompt. DISCUSSION Does a categorical exclusion (CATEX) apply the 400
-The EPA is all about helping and protecting nature and our selves, they have passed many laws to keep us safe. Some of these laws include: C.A.A., or the Clean Air Act. This is a Federal law they passed to make sure we’re not releasing too much emission into the air, or releasing really bad things. Another law they have passed is the C.W.A., or Clean Water Act, this is also a Federal law, it protects our water systems from getting infested with pollution and toxic chemicals, without this we could lose our fishing
The citizen suit provision of the Clean Water Act is an important tool to protect and improve rivers, creeks, streams, and wetlands especially as state agencies may not have the resources to conduct regular water quality monitoring on every water body. Citizen involvement in monitoring and reporting pollution problems is key to watershed protection; hereby helping the government enforce the laws.
Earlier this year the Havasupai Tribe and a coalition of conservation groups sued the United States Forest Service for allowing Energy Fuel Resources Inc. to operate a mine under a 1986 federal environmental review without tribal consultation. The Canyon mine was previously in non-operational status due to low uranium stock prices in 1992. Opponents of the uranium mining operation want the federal environmental review updated and
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) can have consequences (i.e., delays in projects, delays in species protections).
The Keystone XL Pipeline Project has many pros and cons just as any project does, but this project has way bigger cons than most projects this country will face today. “The Keystone XL Pipeline is an environmental crime in progress.” “It’s also been called the most destructive project on the planet.” The major issues with the Keystone XL Pipeline are “the dirty tar sands oil, the water waste, indigenous populations, refining tar sands oil and don’t forget the inevitable; pipeline spills.” And these are just some of the environmental issues, not too mention how building this thing from Canada to Texas; 2,100 miles to be exact, is affecting the people and their land, as stated “this isn’t a little tiny pipeline,
With an increasing global population and ever industrializing society 's, environmental concern is rarely given priority over economic incentive. But what people fail to realize is that our environmental failures, and relative apathy about it set up a plethora of problems for future generations to deal with. One of the most important decisions president Obama will face in the next year will be whether or not to approve the building of the Keystone XL pipeline, a massively sized, and massively controversial oil pipeline that would stretch all the way from Alberta Canada, to American oil refineries along the Gulf Of Mexico. Despite the economic incentive present, the building of the Keystone XL pipeline should not happen because of the
In Jan. 2011, the EPA decided to veto the dumping of waste from the Spruce No. 1 Mine. But the agency’s efforts have so far been rebuffed by the courts as an overreach: Under the weird legal regime that governs mining, it’s the Army Corps of Engineers, not the EPA, which has the ultimate say-so over those permits. In 2012, the D.C. district court ruled that EPA lacked authority to veto the permit after the Corps had issued it. However, in fact EPA's decision is based on evidence from scientific research on serious environmental harm from mining. In May 2013, a coalition of Appalachian and environmental groups petitioned the EPA to set a numeric water quality standard under the Clean Water Act to protect streams from pollution caused by mountaintop removal mining . They claimed that “State politics and industry pressure have so far failed to end this pollution without such a standard and more and more streams and communities who rely on those waters are left vulnerable. We need EPA to act now.” The EPA’s authority over the Clean Water Act in respect to Spruce Mine No. 1 was finally affirmed by the Supreme Court in March 2014.
What is the keystone pipeline and what does it do? The keystone pipeline is an oil pipeline that was commissioned in 2010. It runs from Alberta, Canada and then into refineries in Illinois and Texas and also to an oil pipeline center in Oklahoma. This pipeline is a critical project for the United States. The Pipeline consists of four phases. The first three phases have already been completed. The fourth phase failed to receive permits from the United States government in 2015. The project proposal for Phase IV from 2012 will be new 36-inch pipeline from Alberta and into Montana and then South Dakota to Nebraska. It will transport 830,000 barrels per day of crude oil to refineries in the Gulf Coast and other areas.
The environmental protection agency has been stepping up its mandate of ensuring safer and better environment for not only the business operators, buts also the society as a whole. In order to achieve this goal of environmental protection, there has been the creation of environmental protection agency that has ensured that all the businesses, irrespective of their size and type, strive to ensure that the environment is protected for the benefit of current and future generations.
Understanding that America has made a treaty with the Natives, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Energy Transfer Partners Company must also remember the Natives have the right to their land and resources just as much as Americans have to theirs. There is a fine line between the two, and what the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Energy Transfer Partners did was illegal and tactless. Our constitution and laws has been violated many times throughout the process of constructing this pipeline. They went through loopholes to get the permits without consulting with the Natives first. Many times the Americans have failed to take into account that Natives have a certain way they want to live. It is wrong how we oppressed them with our way of life, especially without
Native Americans are being disrespected, harmed, and their homeland is being taken from them. Am I talking about events taken place centuries ago? No, because these unfortunate circumstances yet again are occurring right here, now, in the present. This horrid affair has a name: The Dakota Access Pipeline. This Pipeline is an oil transporting pipeline, which is funded by the U.S Army Corps of Engineers, who have devised a plan for the pipeline to run through the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Illinois. However, unfortunately, this pipeline will run straight through the reservation of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The Standing Rock Sioux tribe, expressing their distress for the pipeline have said, that the pipeline will be “Destroying our burial sites, prayer sites, and culturally significant artifacts,” Arguments for the pipeline however have tried to counter this claim, trying to emphasize that “The pipeline wouldn 't just be an economic boon, it would also significantly decrease U.S. reliance on foreign oil”, and that the pipeline is estimated to produce “374.3 million gallons of gasoline per day.”, which could help the sinking oil economy. (Yan, 2016) However, despite the economical growth it could achieve, the Dakota Access Pipeline could have damaging environmental effects on the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the areas surrounding.
The environment and the health of the surrounding population go hand in hand. The Environmental Protection Agency takes on this ever so important mission of protecting them both. The mission statement of the EPA states, “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Small Business Programs is to support the protection of human health and the environment by advocating and advancing the business, regulatory, and environmental compliance concerns of small and socio-economically disadvantaged businesses, and minority academic institutions (US Enviromental Protection Agency, 2010).” The impact of its mission can be defined clearly as it examines the impact of contamination in the air, the water, and the land on human health.
The pipeline not only poses a threat to one of only 326 Native American reservations left in this country, but also to the environment as a whole. Regardless of where you stand, the wrongdoing on the part of the United States Government is undeniable. The Dakota Access Pipeline is corrupt at its core and the dangers surrounding its construction have the potential to be catastrophic to the dwindling Native population by threatening their only source of water. A significant saying within the Sioux tribe, especially in times of protest, is a simple one, but one that is clearly not understood by some, and that is “water is
When offered financial compensation for land used for the pipeline, tribal leaders refused outright. If an agreement is going to be made that satisfies both parties, each will have find the middle ground in certain areas. After the initial Environmental Impact Statement, Energy Transfer Partners agreed to lower the depth that the pipeline runs under Lake Oahe to double the originally planned depth. If Energy Transfer Partners are willing to make changes to their plans, then the Sioux should also. It is understandable that the Sioux refused, as they see the land as their own and do not think that they should be required to make exceptions for corporations to build on it. However, one must acknowledge the realities of the world we live in today and accept that certain projects are going to continue whether the tribe like it or not, so they might as well attempt to get the best deal that they
The environment is a very important thing to take care of and can be very fragile. In the recent years humanity hasn’t been doing much to take care of the earth, and instead is destroying it in the name of progress. One of the harmful things that could really impact the environment is the North Dakota Pipeline. Some facts about the pipeline is that it is owned by Energy Transfer Partners who are the owners of Sunoco. Sunoco has had multiple onshore pipeline leaks and disasters that have devastated many environments. The planned pipeline is going to be 1,134 miles long and will cut through North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Illinois, by doing that it crosses fifty counties in total. Pipelines in general aren’t really the most reliable things