Overview
Natural Resources
Butzel offers comprehensive legal services across the full spectrum of natural resources law, including land use, oil, gas, and mineral rights, endangered species protection, wetlands development and management, and water use and conservation. Our work includes stormwater and wastewater discharge permitting, habitat conservation, and wetland approvals.
Our attorneys have significant experience preparing and reviewing environmental impact statements and assessments required for natural resource development projects, ensuring compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and corresponding state regulations. We also represent clients in litigation and dispute resolution matters involving natural resource extraction, environmental contamination, regulatory enforcement, and mineral rights, advocating for their interests in complex proceedings.
Recognizing the importance of stakeholder engagement, we advise on effective consultation and negotiation with Indigenous communities and local stakeholders, assisting with agreement development and conflict resolution to promote successful project outcomes. Additionally, we provide guidance on all aspects of site closure, reclamation, and post-extraction land restoration, helping clients meet environmental standards and community expectations. Our legal counsel supports projects in the high-tech and automotive sectors involving minerals critical to electric vehicles, batteries, and advanced manufacturing, ensuring clients can navigate the unique regulatory and transactional challenges of these industries.
Our Environmental Team is accustomed to guiding clients through every phase of a project, from early planning and permitting to construction and long-term operations, ensuring compliance with complex federal and state regulatory frameworks. With a deep understanding of statutory and regulatory requirements, we help clients anticipate challenges, mitigate risks, and achieve project objectives while maintaining full compliance in a continually evolving regulatory landscape.
Critical Minerals
Several laws and regulations address the stringent documentation of material sources. Many focus on ending "ghost shipping"—the practice where producers falsify shipping documents to conceal the true origin of goods, often to avoid tariffs or circumvent labor and sourcing restrictions. In the United States, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) enforces strict requirements for accurate reporting of the origin and supply chain of imported goods. The Lacey Act, for example, requires truthful declarations about the origins of certain products, and violations can result in criminal and civil penalties. Internationally, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains and European Union regulations require companies to trace and document the provenance of raw materials. Falsifying shipment records to avoid ethical sourcing requirements is a violation of these rules and may result in penalties, exclusion from markets, or legal liability.
On the state level, regulations often align with or reinforce federal requirements, particularly in states, including Michigan, which have their own permitting, reporting, and environmental compliance frameworks for mineral extraction and processing. In Michigan, the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) is responsible for the regulation of many mineral extraction activities. Local ordinances may dictate land use, environmental protections, or additional disclosure requirements depending on the jurisdiction. The rights to develop minerals, and the purchase and sale of mineral rights, are contractual matters beyond the scope of EGLE.
Michigan is a source of numerous mineral resources including crude oil, natural gas, and non-fuel minerals including gypsum, iron ore, salt and brine extracts, sand, gravel and other mineral products including potash, magnesium, copper, nickel, platinum group minerals, and rare earth minerals. These minerals are important to manufacturing, including electric vehicles (EV) and other high-tech industries. The mining of these materials domestically offers security to the automotive supply chain. Butzel attorneys have experience helping clients in the development of minerals and in negotiating the sale of mineral rights, including structuring, negotiating, and documenting mineral rights transactions, including title review and due diligence.
We’re experienced in providing legal and business guidance to companies that source minerals for a variety of production uses in industries including automotive, aerospace and defense, and health care. We help companies understand, navigate, and fulfill documentation and reporting obligations at every level and guide clients through the complexities imposed by regulatory agencies from customs and border enforcement perspectives, including strategies to ensure compliance and avoid risks related to ghost shipping and supply chain misrepresentation.
People
Experience
Created the first wetland bank in Michigan
Assisted clients in obtaining permits and defending action in the alleged disturbance of an endangered species (eagles)
Assisted numerous clients with international transactions involving environmental due diligence and permitting throughout South America, Asia, and Europe
Worked with a developer to obtain Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) n/k/a Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) permit to fill wetlands and negotiated an agreement with a nearby conservancy
Represented developer in obtaining a wastewater discharge permit from a manufactured home park including fighting the state's decision not to issue a permit through a contested case proceeding
Creation of a 13-community management authority for a regional wastewater plant
Representation of municipal and private sector clients before state and federal regulation agencies
