American Oil and Gas Reporter - October 2020 - 19

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IndustryDigest
actually result in negative emissions.
"At a time when Californians pay
more for energy while experiencing
man-made 'green outs,' it doesn't make
sense to hurt consumers, our economy
and our environment by banning
California production," he adds. "We
urge the governor to ignore the rhetoric,
stand for science, and know that we are
willing partners in California's climate
future. The focus should be on reducing
overall emissions, not picking winners
and losers." ❒

Trump's NEPA Rewrite
Passes First Legal Test
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA.-The
Trump administration's revisions to the
National Environmental Policy Act
survived their first legal challenge in
September when a federal judge in
Charlottesville denied opponents'
request for a preliminary injunction.
The White House Council on
Environmental Quality published a final
rule to update and modernize NEPA in
the July 16 Federal Register. Among
other things, those changes set time and
page limits for environmental
assessments and impact statements,
streamlined procedures for EISs
involving multiple federal agencies,
allowed applicants/contractors to assume
greater roles in preparing EISs, and
required analysis of only those affects
that were reasonably foreseeable and had
a reasonably close causal relationship
(AOGR, August 2020, pg. 28).
Two coalitions representing more
than 35 environmental organizations
challenged the rule changes in two
lawsuits filed July 29. One of those was
filed in the U.S. District Court for the
Western District of Virginia by the
Southern Environmental Law Center on
behalf of 17 groups.
It was in that case, Wild Virginia, et
al v. Council on Environmental Quality,
that Judge James P. Jones denied the
plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary
injunction, finding, "The plaintiffs here
may ultimately succeed in this case, but
at this point they have not made that
clear showing."
The second lawsuit challenging the
NEPA rewrite was filed by Earthjustice
and the Western Environmental Law
Center on behalf of 20 additional
groups in the U.S. District Court for the
Northern District of California. ❒

Court Sinks Federal Tax
On Crude Oil Exports
HOUSTON-In a federal tax refund
case that the winning counsel says carries
significant implications for the oil and gas
industry, a federal district court has sided
with a claim by Trafigura Trading LLC
that challenged the constitutionality of 26
U.S.C. §4611(b), which imposes a "tax
on . . . domestic crude oil . . . exported

from the United States."
According to Trafigura's counsel,
Chamberlain Hrdlicka, the taxes are one
of the sources of funding for the Oil Spill
Liability Trust Fund, enacted as part of
the Oil Pollution Act (OPA) of 1990.
On Sept. 8, Chamberlain Hrdlicka
reports, a federal court determined that
§4611(b) was an unconstitutional tax on
exports because the tax obligation
varied according to the quantity of

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OCTOBER 2020 19
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American Oil and Gas Reporter - October 2020

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