The 30-Year Programmatic Eagle Take Permit: How Much Certainty Does It Provide?

Elizabeth A. "Betsy" Lake is a Partner in our San Francisco office and Bradley B. Brownlow is a Partner in our San Francisco office

• The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a final rule that takes limited action to extend the maximum life of programmatic eagle take permits to 30 years, provides for permit transferability, and sets processing and administrative fees; additional rulemaking to further revise the permit regulations is expected in 2014.
• This new rule is an important development for the large-scale renewable energy industry and utility companies, providing for more permitting certainty to enable project financing and operational security and setting the expectation that more projects will obtain this coverage or face increased enforcement threats.