Administrative Law

We have successfully represented clients in rulemakings and adjudications before various federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Minerals Management Service, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Land Management, and the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement.

We understand the workings of administrative agencies and have good relationships with agency staff. We also are well-grounded in principles of administrative law.

We work with staff at the Environmental Protection Agency, both at Headquarters and in the Regions. We have negotiated numerous cooperative agreements between EPA and tribal environmental departments and have obtained EPA support on jurisdictional issues and environmental enforcement matters. For example, we have negotiated agreements with EPA for referral of criminal and other enforcement matters, and we have obtained EPA support on matters of Indian country jurisdiction. We helped convince EPA to authorize a tribal UST program to issue federal field citations under a pilot project, which grew into a full-blown federal credential program and which has proven extremely successful in increasing compliance rates at UST facilities across the tribe’s reservation.

We also work with the Department of the Interior and various programs within the Department, such as the Office of the Solicitor, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, and Minerals Management Service. We have contact with many other agencies as well, both federal (such as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Federal Aviation Administration), and state (such as various state environmental departments), depending upon the needs of particular projects. We use our regulatory expertise and knowledge of agency law and procedures to accomplish many of our clients’ goals.

Some of the administrative cases that we have litigated are the following:

• The Petitions of Tom Boerner, et al., on the permit issued to Aquila Resources, Inc., Mich. Admin. Hearing System, Docket No. 17-005710 (2018) (tribe challenged mining permit threatening off-reservation cultural resources and endangered species).

• Peabody Western Coal Co., CAA Appeal No. 12-01, 15 E.A.D. 757 (Jan. 25, 2013) (denying challenge to Part 71 delegation to tribe).

• Peabody Western Coal Co., CAA Appeal No. 11-01, 15 E.A.D. 524 (Mar. 13, 2012), reconsideration denied April 17, 2012 (upholding Part 71 permit conditions that included references to tribal permitting procedures).

• Peabody Western Coal Co., CAA Appeal No. 10-01, 14 E.A.D. 712 (Aug. 13, 2010) (granting tribe’s motion for voluntary remand of delegated Clean Air Act permit).

• Sanguine Ltd., 155 IBLA 277 (2001) (upholding orders to pay late payment interest on gas royalties due to tribe).

• Elm Ridge Resources, Inc. (BLM NM State Director Decision, 2001) (requiring oil and gas production company to file corrected volume reports for gas produced on tribal land).