September 2015

As the September 30th deadline for the Pipeline Safety Act reauthorization draws near, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation convened a pipeline safety field hearing in Billings, Montana and recently scheduled a second hearing for September 29th in Washington, DC.
Continue Reading Pipeline Safety Field Hearing Provides Insight to PHMSA Priorities; Second Hearing Scheduled

Environmental groups often seek to delay or stop pipeline projects by filing legal challenges under various state and federal environmental and/or energy laws. Recent court decisions have illustrated the difficult nature of such challenges, and in particular the difficulty environmental groups have in making a threshold showing of the legal basis for their challenge. An offshoot of the well-established principle that a litigant cannot raise someone else’s rights in court, the legal doctrine of ‘standing’ requires a litigant to demonstrate its interest in an actual case or controversy as a preliminary requirement for a case to be heard and decided in a court of law. In addition, a litigant citing a particular statute as the basis for a lawsuit must establish that it has an interest at stake that is within the ‘zone of interests’ protected by that statute.
Continue Reading Standing on Shaky Ground: Environmental Challenges to Pipeline Projects Falter in Establishing Basis for Suit