GTH Energy & Natural Resources Law Blog

Please join us on January 17 and 18, 2013, for the annual Buying & Selling Power in the West conference. Now in its 18th year, the conference brings together leading energy attorneys, expert consultants, industry executives, government officials, and many others to discuss the most pressing issues facing the energy industry in our region.

On January 18, Eric Christensen will present a lecture entitled "REC Wreck in the WECC: Litigation Challenging California's REC Market." Mr. Christensen will discuss how legislation adopted by the California legislature has strangled the market for renewable power in the Pacific Northwest, current litigation challenging that legislation, and approaches that could be pursued by Northwest renewables developers and owners to reopen the market on fully competitive terms.

Two cases of great importance to operators of dams, storm sewers, and other water works will be decided in the U.S. Supreme Court's current term. The first, Arkansas Fish & Game Commission v. United States (No. 11-597), involves a takings claim for flooding caused by a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ("Corps") dam. The second, Los Angeles County Flood Control District v. Natural Resources Defense Council (No. 11-460), addresses whether a the operator of a municipal storm sewer system violated its permit under the Clean Water Act ("CWA") where its flood control structures channeled an already-polluted river, passing the polluted water through a man-made structure, but without adding new pollution.

In Arkansas Fish & Game, the state successfully asserted a claim that periodic flooding from a Corps dam, which caused significant damage at a wildlife refuge downstream from the dam, constituted a compensable "taking" under the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The property at issue, the Donaldson Black River Wildlife Management Area ("WMA") in northwest Arkansas, contains rare and important bottomland hardwood habitat. It is located approximately 115 miles downstream from the Corps' Clearwater Dam in Missouri, which was constructed in the 1940s as part of efforts to control flooding in the Mississippi Basin. In the 1990s, the Corps began to deviate from its accepted operating plan for the Clearwater reservoir in order to reduce damage to crops upstream from the dam. Arkansas claimed that the deviations from operating rules increased flooding in the WMA, damaging hardwoods and reducing the value of the habitat in the WMA.

Continue reading "Dams in the Supreme Court: Two Cases To Watch This Term" »

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit last week heard oral argument in a challenge brought by a number of out-of-state biofuel producers who assert that California's Low-Carbon Fuel Standard ("LCFS") violates the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution because it discriminates against out-of-state producers and artificially favors in-state producers. The three-judge panel appeared, at times, perplexed, and at other times, to be highly skeptical of the LCFS.

For example, Senior Judge Dorothy Nelson, citing comments from California officials stating the LCFS will increase employment and tax revenue in California, asked, "Isn't this unambiguous evidence that the board was motivated by protectionism?" Similarly, observing that electricity is a major factor in the carbon intensity calculations used by California and that biofuels producers have no control over how the electricity they use is produced, "isn't this the equivalent of discriminating against producers with the 'dirtiest' electricity," who are generally located in the Midwest. Similarly, Judge Mary Murguia, seemed particularly troubled with LCFS regulations that, on their face, apply a higher carbon intensity score to Midwestern biofuels producers than to California producers. The third judge, Senior Judge Betty Fletcher, did not participate heavily in the argument, but observed that she followed the argument closely and, found some of the answers provided by the attorneys "very satisfactory, others not so much." An audio tape of the argument is available here.

(Sadly, Judge Fletcher passed away just five days after the argument. A native of Tacoma, Judge Fletcher had a highly successful legal career here in Seattle, where, among other achievements, she became the first female partner at a major Pacific Northwest law firm. She was appointed to the Ninth Circuit by President Carter in 1979. She will be missed.)

Continue reading "California, Climate Change, and the Commerce Clause: Ninth Circuit Expresses Skepticism in Argument Involving Low-Carbon Fuel Standard" »