The six quarters
In each of the six calendar quarters from April 1, 2020 to September 30, 2021, orders from appropriate governmental authorities limiting commerce, travel and group meetings due to COVID-19 were in force on the first day and on the last day, and in each quarter they caused a temporary delay, interruption or termination of a more than nominal portion of the operations of employers in mining, oil and gas and energy services throughout the United States. The instruments changed from quarter to quarter; the finding does not. This section states, for each quarter, the orders in force, the functions they reached and the finding in the terms Tri-State Memorial Hospital v. United States, No. 2:25-cv-0181-TOR, ECF No. 38 (E.D. Wash. May 28, 2026) ("Tri-State") fixed: a partial suspension is "a temporary delay, interruption, or termination of a portion an employer's business," and "due to" requires but-for causation.215 The third quarter of 2021 is written as a self-contained section because it is the quarter the Service's letters describe as empty.
The second quarter of 2020
On April 1, 2020 forty-two States and the District of Columbia were under stay-home or non-essential-closure orders; every one of them designated oil and gas extraction and energy essential and conditioned the designation, and Pennsylvania marked its coal, metal and nonmetal mines and mining-services contractors "No" (Ex. PA-004). In the Permian and the Gulf Coast, Texas Executive Order GA-14 took effect April 2 and ran to April 30 (Ex. TX-008), GA-11 quarantined air arrivals to May 21 (Ex. TX-006) and GA-12 quarantined every road arrival from Louisiana to May 1 (Ex. TX-007); New Mexico's order of March 23 named "oil drilling, oil refining, natural resources extraction or mining operations" essential and capped lodging at fifty percent, reduced to twenty-five percent April 7 (Ex. NM-006; Ex. NM-010), and its order of June 30 carried the regime into the next quarter (Ex. NM-023); Louisiana's stay-home order ran to May 15 and its Phases 1 and 2 followed (Ex. LA-005; Ex. LA-010; Ex. LA-012); Oklahoma closed every non-critical business statewide from April 1 to April 24 and quarantined air travelers from six States to May 12 (Ex. OK-011; Ex. OK-014; Ex. OK-010). In the Bakken and the Rockies, North Dakota's Confinement Order 2020-02.1 quarantined every arriving person from April 8 (Ex. ND-021); Montana's stay-home ran to April 26 and its arrival quarantine to June 1 (Ex. MT-009; Ex. MT-010; Ex. MT-012); Wyoming's Orders #1 and #2 ran all quarter in successive continuations, with dine-in closed and gatherings capped at ten to May 14, seated service in groups of six and a cap of twenty-five from May 15 (Ex. WY-004; Ex. WY-005; Ex. WY-016; Ex. WY-017), and its arrival quarantine to May 8 (Ex. WY-010); Colorado's stay-home ran to April 26 and Safer at Home from April 27 (Ex. CO-013; Ex. CO-016; Ex. CO-047; Ex. CO-019; Ex. CO-020); Utah's directive bound every organization and its travel declaration ran from April 10 to May 1 (Ex. UT-004; Ex. UT-009; Ex. UT-008). In Appalachia, Pennsylvania's list of March 19 marked Coal Mining, Metal Ore Mining, Nonmetallic Mineral Mining and Quarrying and Support Activities for Mining "No" (Ex. PA-002; Ex. PA-004; Ex. SEC-09-007), and the Commonwealth kept its stay-home order to June 4 and bound every business that reopened to the Worker Safety Order from April 19 (Ex. PA-008); West Virginia's stay-home ran to May 4 and its traveler isolation to May 21 (Ex. WV-009; Ex. WV-012); Ohio's to May 1 (Ex. OH-011; Ex. OH-014); Kentucky's closure from March 26 and its travel orders to May 22 (Ex. KY-010; Ex. KY-011; Ex. KY-013; Ex. KY-016), with Healthy at Work from May 11 (Ex. KY-017). In Alaska the arrival quarantine, the intrastate travel ban and the critical-workforce plan requirement bound every North Slope and Cook Inlet operator (Ex. AK-012; Ex. AK-014; Ex. AK-021), revised June 5 (Ex. AK-038). In the West, California's N-33-20 (Ex. CA-002; Ex. CA-008), Nevada's Directive 003 (Ex. NV-004), Washington's Proclamation 20-25 (Ex. WA-016; Ex. WA-017), Oregon's EO 20-12 (Ex. OR-007) and Arizona's EO 2020-12 and travel order (Ex. AZ-005; Ex. AZ-012) governed, and the Navajo Nation's stay-home order, curfew and weekend lockdowns ran through the quarter (Ex. AZ-063; Ex. AZ-064; Ex. AGY-TRIBAL-001; Ex. AGY-TRIBAL-003). In the Midwest, Minnesota named iron ore mining a Critical Sector under a stay-home order to May 17 (Ex. MN-010; Ex. MN-012; Ex. MN-017), Michigan confined the State to June 1 (Ex. MI-011; Ex. MI-026) and Illinois to May 29 (Ex. IL-005; Ex. IL-009). Kansas's stay-home ran to May 3 and its quarantine list from March 23 (Ex. KS-009; Ex. KS-010; Ex. KS-053; Ex. KS-054). Every other State's closure or directive regime is on its State page.
The sector regulators, the federal layer and the metros
The sector regulators acted in the same weeks: the Railroad Commission's notices of March 19, March 24, April 3 and May 5 (Ex. SEC-23-001; Ex. SEC-23-002; Ex. SEC-23-003; Ex. SEC-23-004); the Industrial Commission's waiver direction of March 24 and its Director's Cuts of April 14, May 15 and June 12 (Ex. SEC-23-028; Ex. SEC-23-013; Ex. SEC-23-014; Ex. SEC-23-015); the State Land Office's emergency rule of April 21 (Ex. SEC-23-008; Ex. SEC-23-009; Ex. SEC-23-011); FERC's Order No. 870 (Ex. SEC-23-018) and, as the Commission's own record, made at the time, of the emergency regime, its business-continuity policy statement, shortened comment period and oil-pipeline statement (Ex. SEC-23-017; Ex. SEC-23-019; Ex. SEC-23-020); the Oklahoma Corporation Commission's moratorium advisory (Ex. SEC-23-025); the Public Utility Commission of Texas's Project 50664 orders (Ex. AGY-ST-UTILITIES-HOUSING-AG-016; Ex. AGY-ST-UTILITIES-HOUSING-AG-017). The federal layer was in force every day: the entry proclamations (Ex. FED-200; Ex. FED-201; Ex. FED-202; Ex. FED-203; Ex. FED-204), the land-border limits (Ex. FED-216; Ex. FED-239; Ex. FED-217; Ex. FED-240; Ex. FED-218; Ex. FED-241; Ex. FED-219; Ex. FED-242), the Title 42 orders (Ex. FED-034; Ex. FED-035; Ex. FED-036), the immigrant and nonimmigrant suspensions (Ex. FED-210; Ex. FED-211), the visa and immigration-office suspensions (Ex. FED-327; Ex. FED-324), the respirator allocation rule (Ex. FED-075; Ex. FED-076), the paid-leave mandates (Ex. FED-170; Ex. FED-171), the federal-workforce memoranda (Ex. FED-264; Ex. FED-268; Ex. FED-386) and the customs rule that used the Suspension Clause's own words (Ex. AGY-USCG-PORTS-066). The metros added their own: Harris County's Stay Home, Work Safe to April 30 and its Health and Safety Policy and face-covering order from June 22 (Ex. MET-HOU-005; Ex. MET-HOU-006; Ex. MET-HOU-016); Dallas County's and Tarrant County's stay-home orders and Dallas's face coverings from April 17 (Ex. MET-DFW-005; Ex. MET-DFW-042; Ex. MET-DFW-013; Ex. MET-DFW-017; Ex. MET-DFW-021); Bexar County's and San Antonio's orders (Ex. MET-SAT-006; Ex. MET-SAT-007; Ex. MET-SAT-025); Travis County's and Austin's (Ex. MET-AUS-003; Ex. MET-AUS-004; Ex. MET-AUS-039; Ex. MET-AUS-040); Denver's stay-home to May 8 (Ex. MET-DEN-005; Ex. MET-DEN-006; Ex. MET-DEN-007); Salt Lake County's Joint Stay-at-Home to May 1 and face coverings from June 27 (Ex. MET-SLC-005; Ex. MET-SLC-009; Ex. MET-SLC-011; Ex. MET-SLC-012); Los Angeles County's Safer at Home (Ex. MET-LA-003; Ex. MET-LA-004); New Orleans's Stay at Home Directives to May 16 (Ex. MET-MSY-002; Ex. MET-MSY-003; Ex. MET-MSY-004); Maricopa County's face coverings from June 20 (Ex. MET-PHX-001; Ex. MET-PHX-017); King County's closures (Ex. MET-SEA-008). On June 30, 2020 the stay-home orders had ended in every producing State except California, whose N-33-20 ran to June 15, 2021 (Ex. CA-002), and Hawaii, whose stay-home command ran through June 30 (Ex. HI-004; Ex. HI-009); the conditioned regimes, the quarantines of Alaska, Kansas, Hawaii, Maine, Vermont and the tri-State area, New Mexico's lodging caps, the Railroad Commission's extensions to September 30, the State Land Office's rule, the federal layer and the metros' health-and-safety-policy and face-covering orders were in force on the quarter's last day.
The functions reached
EX: essential designations with distancing, screening and plan conditions in every closure State (Ex. CO-013; Ex. NM-006; Ex. AK-021; Ex. NV-004; Ex. TX-008); Pennsylvania's closure of the mines by name (Ex. PA-004); the Navajo lockdowns on the Nation's mineral lands (Ex. AGY-TRIBAL-001; Ex. AGY-TRIBAL-003); the shut-in rule and the waivers (Ex. SEC-23-008; Ex. SEC-23-028). SV and DR: the arrival quarantines of Texas, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Kentucky, West Virginia, Utah, Alaska and Kansas on every rotating crew (Ex. TX-007; Ex. ND-021; Ex. MT-010; Ex. WY-010; Ex. OK-010; Ex. KY-013; Ex. WV-012; Ex. UT-008; Ex. AK-012; Ex. KS-053); the gathering caps of ten on pre-spud meetings and stand-downs (Ex. TX-003; Ex. WY-005); the Industrial Commission's record that completion crews fell "from 25 to 1" (Ex. SEC-23-015). PL: Pennsylvania's Utility Subsystem Construction "No" (Ex. PA-004), New Jersey's construction halt (Ex. NJ-011), New York's essential-project limit (Ex. SEC-09-001), FERC's regime under Order No. 870, recorded in its business-continuity policy statement (Ex. SEC-23-018; Ex. SEC-23-017). CM: the lodging caps, bans and essential-worker rules (Ex. NM-006; Ex. NM-010; Ex. CT-013; Ex. ME-013; Ex. NH-013; Ex. DE-013; Ex. SC-012; Ex. VT-012; Ex. CO-079; Ex. UT-056) and the posting requirements (Ex. MT-010; Ex. WY-010). PM: the Commission and "a large number of operators ... now working remotely" (Ex. SEC-23-001), every deadline rolled (Ex. SEC-23-003), the Interior workforce on leave and telework (Ex. FED-386), the State Land Office's tele-hearings (Ex. SEC-23-012), the courts' emergency orders (Ex. ECO-C-061). SC: the manufacturing closures (Ex. PA-002; Ex. MI-011), the land-border limits and entry proclamations (Ex. FED-216; Ex. FED-239; Ex. FED-211), the respirator allocation rule (Ex. FED-075). HR: the clinic suspensions (Ex. TX-004; Ex. CO-007; Ex. OK-006; Ex. NM-007; Ex. LA-045; Ex. WV-014) and the orders conditioning West Virginia's resumption on approved plans (Ex. WV-023; Ex. WV-024), the visa suspension (Ex. FED-327), the paid-leave mandates (Ex. FED-170). OP: the stay-home orders on every office (Ex. CO-011; Ex. TX-008; Ex. MI-011). WF: the school closures in every State and the quarantine orders. CB: producers shut in and utilities under moratoria (Ex. SEC-23-008; Ex. AGY-ST-UTILITIES-HOUSING-AG-001; Ex. AGY-ST-UTILITIES-HOUSING-AG-003; the Oklahoma Corporation Commission's advisory of the coordinated moratoriums, Ex. SEC-23-025, context), refiners cutting runs as jet fuel fell sixty-four percent and gasoline twenty-six percent under the orders on travel (Ex. SEC-23-024), the Federal Reserve's "mandated closures" (Ex. LAW-210; Ex. LAW-218), the Commerce Department's attribution of the quarter's collapse to "stay-at-home orders" (Ex. LAW-253).
The finding
During the calendar quarter beginning April 1, 2020 and ending June 30, 2020, orders from appropriate governmental authorities limiting commerce, travel and group meetings due to COVID-19, namely the stay-home and non-essential-closure orders of forty-two States and the District of Columbia with their conditions on essential operations (Ex. TX-008; Ex. CO-013; Ex. NM-006; Ex. LA-005; Ex. OK-011; Ex. PA-002; Ex. WV-009; Ex. CA-002; Ex. MN-010), Pennsylvania's closure of the mines and mining-services contractors by name (Ex. PA-004), the arrival-quarantine orders of twenty States (Ex. TX-007; Ex. ND-021; Ex. MT-010; Ex. WY-010; Ex. AK-012), the lodging orders (Ex. NM-006; Ex. NM-010), the sector regulators' instruments (Ex. SEC-23-001; Ex. SEC-23-003; Ex. SEC-23-004; Ex. SEC-23-008; the Industrial Commission's direction of March 24, 2020 reinstating the waivers, recorded in Ex. SEC-23-028; FERC Order No. 870, Ex. SEC-23-018), the federal entry, border, allocation and leave instruments (Ex. FED-203; Ex. FED-216; Ex. FED-239; Ex. FED-075; Ex. FED-170) and the county and city orders of the industry's office and supply cities (Ex. MET-HOU-005; Ex. MET-DEN-005; Ex. MET-MSY-003), caused a temporary delay, interruption or termination of a more than nominal portion of the operations of employers in this industry throughout the United States. They did so by closing a class of mines by name, by confining the crews on which every basin runs, by capping and closing the lodging those crews use, by closing the offices of the regulators to which every permit and report is filed, by conditioning every essential operation on distancing, screening and plan requirements, by allocating the respirators the work requires, and by collapsing, through the orders on travel and commerce everywhere else, the demand for the industry's product, so that its regulators revived waste-prevention waivers, invited shut-ins and recorded the fewest active rigs in the history of the count.
The third quarter of 2020
On July 1, 2020 New Mexico's Executive Order 2020-054 required every arriving person to self-isolate for fourteen days (Ex. NM-024), and its orders of July 13 and September 18 re-closed indoor dining and carried the lodging caps (Ex. NM-026; Ex. NM-032), with the quarantine amended by Executive Order 2020-063 of September 3, effective September 4 (Ex. NM-031). Texas GA-29 required face coverings statewide from July 3 (Ex. TX-022), one of the workplace infection-prevention and exposure-control requirements that GA-28's and, from September 21, GA-30's occupancy limits completed (Ex. TX-021; Ex. TX-023). Colorado's Safer at Home regime continued and its face-covering order took effect July 17 atop that regime's distancing and capacity rules (Ex. CO-020; Ex. CO-031). Louisiana required a face covering of every person inside a commercial establishment or other space open to the public from July 13 and closed every bar to on-premises consumption (Ex. LA-014), and its Phase 2 ran to Phase 3 on September 11, whose order carried the mandate forward (Ex. LA-012; Ex. LA-018). Kentucky's Healthy at Work minimum requirements bound every reopened business (Ex. KY-017; Ex. KY-019). Pennsylvania's Worker Safety Order remained in force and its targeted mitigation orders of July 15, effective July 16, required that "Unless not possible, all businesses are required to conduct their operations in whole or in part remotely through individual teleworking" (Ex. PA-008; Ex. PA-016; Ex. PA-017). Virginia's Emergency Temporary Standard bound every employer from July 27 (Ex. VA-036). Alaska's travel order ran in its June 5 and August 6 forms (Ex. AK-038; Ex. AK-039); Kansas's quarantine list was updated June 29 (Ex. KS-054); North Dakota's arrival quarantine ran to September 21 (Ex. ND-021; Ex. ND-056); Massachusetts quarantined every arrival from August 1 (Ex. MA-025), Connecticut from July 24 (Ex. CT-023; Ex. CT-028), New York from June 25 (Ex. NY-006), Rhode Island (Ex. RI-024) and the District of Columbia from July 27 (Ex. DC-081); Hawaii's quarantine ran all quarter (Ex. HI-003); Monongalia County's ordinance took effect July 15 (Ex. WV-082); the Navajo Nation resumed weekend lockdowns September 1 (Ex. AGY-TRIBAL-008) and the Yakama Nation required face coverings indoors and barred service to unmasked customers (Ex. AGY-TRIBAL-054). Statewide face-covering orders, each one of the workplace infection-prevention and exposure-control requirements its State imposed on every indoor public setting, the industry's offices, shops and lodging among them, were in force on September 30 in Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Colorado, Kentucky, West Virginia, Montana, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, Virginia and the Northeast. The Railroad Commission extended every deadline to December 31 (Ex. SEC-23-006) and its waiver invitation stood (Ex. SEC-23-002); the Industrial Commission's Director's Cut of July 17 recorded thirty-five rigs and 193 wells waiting on completion (Ex. SEC-23-016); FERC's waiver regime under Order No. 870 ran (Ex. SEC-23-018), and the Commission's own record of it, made at the time, shows the shortened comment period running to September 1 and the technical conference sitting July 8 and 9 (Ex. SEC-23-019; Ex. SEC-23-021); New Mexico's Occupational Health and Safety Bureau required four-hour case reporting from August 5 (Ex. AGY-ST-LABOR-WORKPLACE-027); the Kentucky Public Service Commission's moratorium ran to October 20 (Ex. AGY-ST-UTILITIES-HOUSING-AG-002) and the Public Utility Commission of Texas's disconnection exception to September 30 (Ex. AGY-ST-UTILITIES-HOUSING-AG-019; Ex. AGY-ST-UTILITIES-HOUSING-AG-020). The federal layer continued: the land-border limits renewed July 22, August 21 and September 23 (Ex. FED-220; Ex. FED-243; Ex. FED-221; Ex. FED-244; Ex. FED-222; Ex. FED-245); the entry proclamations (Ex. FED-203; Ex. FED-204; Ex. FED-211); the Title 42 order (Ex. FED-036); the allocation rule as extended August 10 (Ex. FED-077); the revised paid-leave rule from September 16 (Ex. FED-172); the Department of Defense's conditions-based travel restrictions (Ex. FED-283; recorded in Ex. AGY-DEFENSE-GUARD-050, context); the critical-infrastructure guidance in its 4.0 form (Ex. ECO-A-124, context). The metros: Harris County's face-covering and health-policy order continued July 1 and August 26 (Ex. MET-HOU-020; Ex. MET-HOU-023; Ex. MET-HOU-043); Dallas County's supplemental orders of August 4 (Ex. MET-DFW-023; Ex. MET-DFW-024); Bexar County's NW-12 and NW-13 (Ex. MET-SAT-031; Ex. MET-SAT-034); Austin's order of July 3 (Ex. MET-AUS-010); Allegheny County's control-measure orders of July 2, 8 and 17 (Ex. MET-PIT-002; Ex. MET-PIT-004; Ex. MET-PIT-006); Jefferson Parish's indoor face-covering proclamation from July 1 and East Baton Rouge's No Mask - No Service rule from July 3 (Ex. MET-MSY-054; Ex. MET-MSY-073); Salt Lake County's face coverings extended to January 5, 2021 (Ex. MET-SLC-072; Ex. MET-SLC-073); Maricopa County's amended regulations (Ex. MET-PHX-023; Ex. MET-PHX-042); Denver's transit face coverings (Ex. MET-DEN-046).
The functions reached
EX and SV: the face-covering, distancing, screening and health-policy conditions, the workplace infection-prevention and exposure-control requirements on every site and shop (Ex. TX-022; Ex. CO-031; Ex. LA-018; Ex. KY-017; Ex. PA-008; Ex. VA-036; Ex. MET-HOU-020); the Navajo lockdowns (Ex. AGY-TRIBAL-008). DR: the New Mexico, Alaska, Kansas, North Dakota and Northeast quarantines on every crew rotation (Ex. NM-024; Ex. AK-039; Ex. KS-054; Ex. ND-021; Ex. MA-025; Ex. CT-023); the Bakken at thirty-five rigs (Ex. SEC-23-016). PL: FERC's regime under Order No. 870, recorded in its notices and statements, and the utilities' moratoria (Ex. SEC-23-018; Ex. SEC-23-019; Ex. SEC-23-020; Ex. AGY-ST-UTILITIES-HOUSING-AG-002). CM: New Mexico's lodging caps and dining closures (Ex. NM-026; Ex. NM-032); the county orders on restaurants and bars in every basin city (Ex. MET-PIT-006; Ex. MET-SAT-031). PM: the Railroad Commission's extended deadlines (Ex. SEC-23-006), FERC's technical conference on the industry's own account of the emergency (Ex. SEC-23-021), New Mexico's reporting rule (Ex. AGY-ST-LABOR-WORKPLACE-027). SC: the land-border limits and the nonimmigrant suspension (Ex. FED-220; Ex. FED-243; Ex. FED-211); the allocation rule (Ex. FED-077). HR: Virginia's standard, the paid-leave rule and the Department of Defense's travel regime on contractor personnel (Ex. VA-036; Ex. FED-172; Ex. FED-283). OP: Pennsylvania's telework mandate (Ex. PA-016; Ex. PA-017); the face-covering orders on every office. WF: the fall 2020 school orders in every State; the quarantine orders on returning employees. CB: the utilities under moratoria; the refiners under demand the orders on travel had removed; the Federal Reserve's "mandated restrictions" (Ex. LAW-218; Ex. LAW-208).
The finding
During the calendar quarter beginning July 1, 2020 and ending September 30, 2020, orders from appropriate governmental authorities limiting commerce, travel and group meetings due to COVID-19, namely the traveler-quarantine orders of New Mexico, North Dakota, Alaska, Kansas, Hawaii and the Northeast (Ex. NM-024; Ex. NM-031; Ex. ND-021; Ex. AK-039; Ex. KS-054; Ex. HI-003; Ex. MA-025; Ex. CT-023; Ex. NY-006), the statewide face-covering and conditioned-operation orders of every energy State, its workplace infection-prevention and exposure-control requirements (Ex. TX-022; Ex. TX-023; Ex. CO-031; Ex. LA-014; Ex. LA-018; Ex. KY-017; Ex. PA-016; Ex. PA-017), Virginia's binding workplace standard (Ex. VA-036), New Mexico's lodging caps and re-closures (Ex. NM-026; Ex. NM-032), the sector regulators' instruments (Ex. SEC-23-006; Ex. SEC-23-002; Order No. 870, Ex. SEC-23-018; Ex. AGY-ST-LABOR-WORKPLACE-027), the federal border, entry, allocation and leave instruments (Ex. FED-221; Ex. FED-244; Ex. FED-211; Ex. FED-077; Ex. FED-172) and the county orders of the industry's cities (Ex. MET-HOU-020; Ex. MET-PIT-006; Ex. MET-MSY-054), caused a temporary delay, interruption or termination of a more than nominal portion of the operations of employers in this industry throughout the United States. They did so by confining every crew that crossed a State line into the Permian, the Bakken, the North Slope or the Northeast, by conditioning every job site and shop on masking, distancing and screening rules with the force of law, by mandating remote operation of every Pennsylvania office where remote operation was possible, by keeping the regulators' deadlines and hearings on an emergency footing, by limiting the borders across which the industry's equipment and technicians move, and by continuing, through the conditioned regimes on every other industry, the demand collapse that had cut the Bakken's rigs from fifty-five to thirty-five and its completion crews to one.
The fourth quarter of 2020
The winter re-tightening reached every basin. New Mexico's order of October 16 capped gatherings at five, closed alcohol service at 10 p.m. and set lodging at sixty and twenty-five percent (Ex. NM-033); its quarantine was amended October 29 (Ex. NM-037); its reset of November 16 to December 2 closed non-essential businesses a second time with lodging at twenty-five percent (Ex. NM-039; Ex. NM-040); its county framework from December 2 set lodging at seventy-five, sixty, forty and twenty-five percent by county color (Ex. NM-041; Ex. NM-047). North Dakota's face-covering order, with its business duties, was re-issued December 9 to January 18, 2021 (Ex. ND-066). Pennsylvania's universal face-covering order took effect November 18 (Ex. PA-020), its travel order required a negative test or quarantine of every person entering from November 20 (Ex. PA-021), and its mitigation orders of November 27 required that "Unless impossible, all businesses must conduct their operations remotely" (Ex. PA-022; Ex. PA-023). Colorado adopted Level Red November 20 (Ex. CO-037); Wyoming required face coverings from December 9, joining the distancing conditions and gathering caps of Orders #1 and #2 (Ex. WY-040); Utah declared a new public health emergency October 14 and required face coverings statewide, with gathering limits, November 9 (Ex. UT-025; Ex. UT-029); Oklahoma imposed its travel moratorium and 11 p.m. rule (Ex. OK-032; Ex. OK-033); Texas GA-32 took effect October 14 (Ex. TX-025), and the Department of State Health Services placed Trauma Service Area E under its capacity trigger December 3 (Ex. MET-DFW-051; Ex. MET-DFW-027, context). Cal/OSHA's Emergency Temporary Standard bound every California employer from November 30 (Ex. CA-023; Ex. AGY-ST-LABOR-WORKPLACE-002), the Regional Stay at Home Order closed hotels to out-of-State non-essential reservations from December 6 (Ex. CA-020; Ex. CA-021) and Executive Order N-84-20 conformed the quarantine rules December 14 (Ex. CA-022); Oregon OSHA's rule bound every Oregon employer from November 16 (Ex. OR-032); Michigan's OSHA emergency rules bound every Michigan employer from October 14 (Ex. MI-054; as amended and refiled May 24, 2021, Ex. AGY-ST-LABOR-WORKPLACE-062; described in MIOSHA's presentation of October 22, 2020, Ex. AGY-ST-LABOR-WORKPLACE-049, context) and its Employment Rights Act from October 22 (Ex. MI-057); Washington restricted arriving travelers from December 21 (Ex. WA-054); New Jersey imposed workplace protocols from November 5 and a utility moratorium from October 15 (Ex. NJ-036; Ex. NJ-059); Maryland required testing or quarantine of arriving travelers from December 17 (Ex. MD-023; Ex. MD-050); Vermont paused its Safe Travel policy into a universal quarantine on November 10, announced by the Governor that day (Ex. VT-080) and carried by Addendum 8 to Amended and Restated Executive Order 01-20 of November 13, 2020 (Ex. VT-034; Ex. VT-035); New Hampshire's travel order issued November 15 (Ex. NH-027); the District's from November 9 (Ex. DC-012); Kansas's list was updated December 1 (Ex. KS-055); Alaska's travel order was revised October 16 and replaced by Outbreak Health Order No. 6 from November 16 (Ex. AK-022; Ex. AK-035); the Navajo Nation re-issued its stay-home order November 16 and continued it December 3 (Ex. AGY-TRIBAL-013; Ex. AZ-072); the Mescalero Apache Tribe confined weekday movement and closed its roads in October (Ex. AGY-TRIBAL-031). The Railroad Commission's extensions ran to December 31 and expired that day (Ex. SEC-23-006; Ex. SEC-23-007); FERC's waiver regime under Order No. 870 ran (Ex. SEC-23-018), and the Commission's docket recorded UGI LNG's COVID-19 construction delay October 8 (Ex. SEC-23-022); the Industrial Commission's plugging program ran, as its release records (Ex. SEC-23-029, context); the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission's moratorium ended November 9 (Ex. AGY-ST-UTILITIES-HOUSING-AG-015). The federal layer: the land-border limits renewed October 22, November 23 and December 22 (Ex. FED-223; Ex. FED-246; Ex. FED-224; Ex. FED-247; Ex. FED-225; Ex. FED-248); the Title 42 order of October 13 (Ex. FED-037); the entry proclamations and the nonimmigrant suspension (Ex. FED-203; Ex. FED-211); the allocation rule extended December 31 to June 30, 2021 (Ex. FED-078); the H-2A extension (Ex. FED-323); the paid-leave mandates to December 31 (Ex. FED-172). The metros: Denver's Home by 10 from November 8 and Level Red from November 20 (Ex. MET-DEN-028; Ex. MET-DEN-039); the Seventeenth Judicial District's limited operations (Ex. MET-DEN-065); Bexar County's Thanksgiving curfew and fifty-percent rule (Ex. MET-SAT-051; Ex. MET-SAT-055); Austin's order of December 16 (Ex. MET-AUS-013); New Orleans's Modified Phase Two (Ex. MET-MSY-015); Washoe County's gathering limits (Ex. MET-LAS-032; Ex. MET-LAS-033); Los Angeles County's Targeted Safer at Home of December 30 (Ex. MET-LA-012); the Bay Area's Stay Safer at Home of December 6 (Ex. MET-SFO-013); Pittsburgh's paid-sick-leave ordinance of December 8 (Ex. MET-PIT-046); Salt Lake County's face coverings to January 5 (Ex. MET-SLC-073). Statewide face-covering orders, the airborne-transmission controls of the winter regimes, were in force on December 31 in every energy State but Alaska, South Dakota, Nebraska, Idaho, Oklahoma, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Missouri, Arizona (which relied on county and city orders, Ex. MET-PHX-001) and Mississippi (whose statewide order of August 5 to September 30, 2020 had given way to county mandates under the winter orders beginning with Executive Order 1535, Ex. MS-046).
The functions reached
EX, SV and DR: the State OSHA rules on every California, Oregon and Michigan site (Ex. CA-023; Ex. OR-032; Ex. MI-054); the face-covering orders, with the distancing, capacity and screening conditions that accompanied them, on every Texas, Colorado, North Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, Pennsylvania and New Mexico site (Ex. TX-025; Ex. CO-037; Ex. ND-066; Ex. WY-040; Ex. UT-029; Ex. PA-020; Ex. NM-041); the Navajo stay-home order on the Nation's mineral lands (Ex. AGY-TRIBAL-013). CM: New Mexico's second closure and its lodging at twenty-five percent (Ex. NM-039; Ex. NM-040; Ex. NM-041); California's hotel rule (Ex. CA-020); Pennsylvania's, Maryland's, Vermont's, New Hampshire's, Washington's and Alaska's travel orders on every crew (Ex. PA-021; Ex. MD-023; Ex. VT-034; Ex. VT-035; Ex. VT-080; Ex. NH-027; Ex. WA-054; Ex. AK-035). PM: every Texas deadline expiring December 31 (Ex. SEC-23-007); FERC's docket (Ex. SEC-23-022); the courts' emergency orders (Ex. MET-DEN-065). PL: the utility moratoria (Ex. NJ-059; Ex. AGY-ST-UTILITIES-HOUSING-AG-006) and FERC's regime under Order No. 870 (Ex. SEC-23-018). SC: the land-border limits, the Title 42 order and the nonimmigrant suspension (Ex. FED-224; Ex. FED-247; Ex. FED-037; Ex. FED-211); the allocation rule (Ex. FED-078). HR: New Jersey's protocols and Michigan's quarantine-leave statute (Ex. NJ-036; Ex. MI-057); the paid-leave mandates (Ex. FED-172). OP: Pennsylvania's "Unless impossible" mandate (Ex. PA-022; Ex. PA-023); New Mexico's reset (Ex. NM-039); Denver's Home by 10 (Ex. MET-DEN-028). WF: the school and quarantine orders of the winter. CB: the utilities under moratoria; the Federal Reserve's "mandated restrictions" (Ex. LAW-219).
The finding
During the calendar quarter beginning October 1, 2020 and ending December 31, 2020, orders from appropriate governmental authorities limiting commerce, travel and group meetings due to COVID-19, namely the winter re-tightening orders of New Mexico, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Oklahoma and Texas (Ex. NM-033; Ex. NM-039; Ex. NM-041; Ex. ND-066; Ex. PA-020; Ex. PA-021; Ex. PA-022; Ex. PA-023; Ex. CO-037; Ex. WY-040; Ex. UT-029; Ex. OK-033; Ex. TX-025), the State OSHA rules of California, Oregon and Michigan (Ex. CA-023; Ex. OR-032; Ex. MI-054), the travel orders of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Vermont, New Hampshire, Washington, Alaska, Kansas and New Mexico (Ex. PA-021; Ex. MD-023; Ex. VT-034; Ex. VT-035; Ex. VT-080; Ex. NH-027; Ex. WA-054; Ex. AK-035; Ex. KS-055; Ex. NM-037), California's Regional Stay at Home Order (Ex. CA-020), the sector regulators' instruments (Ex. SEC-23-006; Ex. SEC-23-007; Order No. 870, Ex. SEC-23-018), the federal border, entry, allocation and leave instruments (Ex. FED-225; Ex. FED-248; Ex. FED-037; Ex. FED-078; Ex. FED-172) and the county orders of the industry's cities (Ex. MET-DEN-028; Ex. MET-SAT-055; Ex. MET-LA-012), caused a temporary delay, interruption or termination of a more than nominal portion of the operations of employers in this industry throughout the United States. They did so by closing New Mexico's non-essential businesses a second time and capping its lodging at a quarter, by requiring a negative test or quarantine of every person entering Pennsylvania and quarantining arrivals in seven other States, by mandating remote operation wherever it was not impossible, by binding every California, Oregon and Michigan job site to a workplace-safety rule, and by bringing every deferred Texas regulatory obligation due on a single day.
The first quarter of 2021
The quarter opened with every December 31 instrument in force and added the federal general layer. Executive Orders 13991, 13998 and 13999 issued January 20 and 21 (Ex. FED-060; Ex. FED-061; Ex. FED-062); the pre-departure testing order took effect January 26 (Ex. FED-042); the Secretary of Homeland Security's determination issued January 27 (Ex. FED-057); and at 11:59 p.m. on February 1, 2021 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's conveyance and transportation-hub mask order and the Transportation Security Administration's directives, the airborne-transmission control that governed every conveyance and hub, took effect on every flight, airport, bus, train and ferry in the country (Ex. FED-020; Ex. FED-050; Ex. FED-053; Ex. FED-054; Ex. FED-055). Proclamation 10143 continued the entry suspensions January 26 (Ex. FED-207); the land-border limits were renewed January 19, February 23 and March 19 (Ex. FED-227; Ex. FED-250; Ex. FED-228; Ex. FED-251; Ex. FED-229; Ex. FED-252); the national emergency was continued February 24 (Ex. FED-002); Memorandum M-21-15 limited every federal workplace to twenty-five percent occupancy from January 24 (Ex. FED-270); the National Emphasis Program issued March 12 (Ex. FED-082); the Department of Defense reissued its travel restrictions March 15 (Ex. FED-280); the supply-chain order issued February 24 (Ex. ECO-A-072); the scarce-materials designation was extended February 1 (Ex. ECO-A-070); the nonimmigrant suspension ran to March 31 (Ex. FED-211); the American Rescue Plan Act re-enacted the Suspension Clause March 11 (Ex. FED-174). In the States, New Mexico's quarantine ran to February 10 (Ex. NM-037; Ex. NM-051) and its county framework all quarter (Ex. NM-047); Pennsylvania's travel order ran to March 1 and its mitigation orders were amended that day (Ex. PA-021; Ex. PA-032; Ex. PA-031) with the face-covering order continuing (Ex. PA-020); Alaska's travel order lapsed February 14 (Ex. AK-035); Texas's face-covering order and GA-32's occupancy limits ran to March 10, when GA-34 took effect (Ex. TX-022; Ex. TX-025; Ex. TX-029); Wyoming's face-covering order ran to March 15 (Ex. WY-040); North Dakota's face-covering order and capacity limits ran to January 18, when Executive Order 2020-43.5 took effect and ended them (Ex. ND-066; Ex. ND-074); Colorado's dial ran to Dial 3.0 on March 24 (Ex. CO-057); Virginia's standard became permanent January 27 (Ex. VA-037); California's exposure-notice statute took effect January 1, its Regional order ended January 25 and its Cal/OSHA standard continued (Ex. CA-065; Ex. CA-020; Ex. CA-023); Minnesota's telework mandate ran to April 14 (Ex. MN-037); Kansas's list (Ex. KS-055), Kentucky's Healthy at Work (Ex. KY-017), Louisiana's Phase 3 with its face-covering requirement (Ex. LA-018), New Jersey's protocols (Ex. NJ-036), Oregon OSHA's rule (Ex. OR-032), Michigan's rules, Washington's travel proclamation (Ex. WA-054), Connecticut's quarantine to March 19 (Ex. CT-028), Massachusetts's to March 22 (Ex. MA-025), Rhode Island's (Ex. RI-036), New York's (Ex. NY-048), Maryland's to January 31 (Ex. MD-050), Nebraska's measures (Ex. NE-028) and the Navajo Nation's stay-home order to March 15 (Ex. AGY-TRIBAL-017; Ex. AGY-TRIBAL-018) governed. The metros: Austin's order of February 17 to April 21 and the Commissioners Court's adoption of the Health Authority's rules March 9 (Ex. MET-AUS-017; Ex. MET-AUS-047); Travis County's remote hearings (Ex. MET-AUS-062); Bexar County's fifty-percent rule to March 10 and NW-20 thereafter (Ex. MET-SAT-055; Ex. MET-SAT-059); Harris County's court plan modified March 15 (Ex. MET-HOU-051); Los Angeles County's Blueprint order of March 20 (Ex. MET-LA-014); Riverside County's protocol for critical infrastructure workers of February 17 (Ex. MET-RIV-017); Pittsburgh's eviction ordinance of March 3 (Ex. MET-PIT-047); every metro transit authority enforcing the federal order (Ex. MET-DFW-094; Ex. MET-AUS-087; Ex. MET-MSY-037; Ex. MET-SAT-058).
The functions reached
CM and DR: from February 1 every crew flight, charter, helicopter and airport operated under a federal order limiting travel to persons who complied with it (Ex. FED-020; Ex. FED-050; Ex. FED-053; Ex. FED-054); New Mexico's, Pennsylvania's, Alaska's and Kansas's quarantines confined the crews into February and March (Ex. NM-037; Ex. PA-021; Ex. AK-035; Ex. KS-055). EX and SV: the face-covering and capacity regimes of Texas to March 10 (Ex. TX-022; Ex. TX-025), Wyoming to March 15 (Ex. WY-040), North Dakota to January 18 (Ex. ND-066; Ex. ND-074), Colorado (Ex. CO-057), Pennsylvania (Ex. PA-020), New Mexico (Ex. NM-047); the State OSHA rules (Ex. VA-037; Ex. CA-023; Ex. OR-032); the Navajo stay-home order (Ex. AGY-TRIBAL-017). PM: the federal offices at twenty-five percent occupancy (Ex. FED-270); the courts (Ex. MET-AUS-062; Ex. MET-HOU-051). SC: the land-border limits, the entry proclamation and the pre-departure testing order (Ex. FED-228; Ex. FED-251; Ex. FED-207; Ex. FED-042). HR: Executive Order 13999 and the National Emphasis Program (Ex. FED-062; Ex. FED-082); California's exposure-notice statute (Ex. CA-065); Riverside's critical-worker protocol (Ex. MET-RIV-017). OP: Pennsylvania's and Minnesota's telework mandates (Ex. PA-031; Ex. MN-037). WF: the conveyance face-covering order on every commute (Ex. FED-020); the winter school and quarantine orders. CB: the utility moratoria; the Federal Reserve's January account (Ex. LAW-249).
The finding
During the calendar quarter beginning January 1, 2021 and ending March 31, 2021, orders from appropriate governmental authorities limiting commerce, travel and group meetings due to COVID-19, namely the federal conveyance mask order and security directives, the airborne-transmission control on every flight, bus, train and transportation hub (Ex. FED-020; Ex. FED-050; Ex. FED-053; Ex. FED-054; Ex. FED-055), the entry proclamations, land-border limits and testing order (Ex. FED-207; Ex. FED-229; Ex. FED-252; Ex. FED-042), the traveler-quarantine orders of New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Alaska, Kansas and the Northeast (Ex. NM-037; Ex. PA-021; Ex. AK-035; Ex. KS-055; Ex. CT-028; Ex. MA-025; Ex. NY-048), the face-covering, capacity and telework orders of Texas, Wyoming, North Dakota (to January 18), Colorado, Pennsylvania, New Mexico and Minnesota (Ex. TX-022; Ex. TX-025; Ex. WY-040; Ex. ND-066; Ex. ND-074; Ex. CO-057; Ex. PA-020; Ex. PA-031; Ex. NM-047; Ex. MN-037), the State OSHA rules (Ex. VA-037; Ex. CA-023; Ex. OR-032) and the county orders of the industry's cities (Ex. MET-AUS-017; Ex. MET-SAT-055; Ex. MET-LA-014), caused a temporary delay, interruption or termination of a more than nominal portion of the operations of employers in this industry throughout the United States. They did so by placing every crew movement by air under a federal order, by confining arriving crews in the Permian's second State for six more weeks and in Pennsylvania for two months, by keeping the face-covering and capacity regimes on every Texas, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico site for most or all of the quarter, by binding every Virginia, California and Oregon site to a workplace-safety rule, and by keeping the regulators' offices at a quarter of their capacity.
The second quarter of 2021
On April 1, 2021 the federal general layer was in force in full and remained so on June 30 (Ex. FED-020; Ex. FED-050; Ex. FED-207; Ex. FED-230; Ex. FED-253); the Administrator ratified the directives April 20 (Ex. FED-056), Proclamation 10199 added India from May 4 (Ex. FED-208), Security Directive 1582/84-21-01A took effect May 12 (Ex. FED-051), the land-border limits were renewed April 22, May 24 and June 23 (Ex. FED-230; Ex. FED-253; Ex. FED-231; Ex. FED-254; Ex. FED-232; Ex. FED-255), the allocation rule ran to June 30 with exemptions noticed June 11 (Ex. FED-078; Ex. FED-079), the health-care standard took effect June 21 with its inspection directive June 28 (Ex. FED-080; Ex. FED-081), Memorandum M-21-25 issued June 10 (Ex. FED-271), the supply-chain review and task force issued June 8 (Ex. ECO-A-101; Ex. ECO-A-102), the Coast Guard's maritime mask bulletin issued June 11 (Ex. AGY-USCG-PORTS-037) and the supplemental H-2B rule ran from May 25 (Ex. AGY-FED-LABOR-IMMIGRATION-014). In the States, Colorado's Public Health Order 20-38 took effect April 16 and its Disaster Recovery regime followed (Ex. CO-051); New Mexico's vaccination-metric framework governed from April 30 through June 30 (Ex. NM-054; Ex. NM-057), its Supreme Court amended its protocols June 29 (Ex. NM-059), and on June 30 the Secretary of Health issued the order that governed July 1 (Ex. NM-060); Oklahoma rescinded its emergency orders May 4 and reopened its buildings June 1 (Ex. OK-041; Ex. OK-042); North Dakota rescinded its emergency April 30 and enacted House Bills 1118, 1323 and 1465 (Ex. ND-081; Ex. ND-078; Ex. ND-080; Ex. ND-082); Utah's remaining statewide restrictions ended May 4 under House Bill 294, applied by State Public Health Order 2021-11, which kept the school face-covering order to the end of the school year (Ex. UT-040; Ex. UT-043); Pennsylvania's telework mandate ended April 3 (Ex. PA-033), its mitigation orders' remaining capacity, gathering, alcohol and workplace rules ran to May 31 (Ex. PA-031; Ex. PA-035; Ex. PA-036) and its face-covering order to June 28 (Ex. PA-020), and Act 21 extended its regulatory suspensions to September 30 (Ex. PA-040); Kentucky's Healthy at Work ran to June 11 (Ex. KY-049); West Virginia terminated its framework April 20 while keeping its health orders (Ex. WV-063; Ex. WV-064); Louisiana's Phases ran to May 26 and its emergency was renewed June 22 (Ex. LA-034); Cal/OSHA's standard was readopted June 17, the Beyond the Blueprint order took effect June 15 and N-33-20 was rescinded the same day (Ex. CA-024; Ex. CA-029; Ex. CA-002); Oregon OSHA's permanent rule took effect May 4, amended June 30, and Executive Order 21-15 issued June 25 (Ex. OR-041; Ex. OR-044; Ex. OR-043); Alaska's new public health emergency took effect May 1 (Ex. AK-030); Washington's travel proclamation was amended April 6 and its Secretary of Health's face-covering order issued June 29 (Ex. WA-061; Ex. WA-070); Michigan's OSHA rules were refiled May 24 and rescinded June 22 (Ex. AGY-ST-LABOR-WORKPLACE-062); New Jersey's general worksite protocols ran to June 4, its unvaccinated-employee rules carried forward by Executive Orders 242 and 243, and its moratorium to June 30 with a grace period to December 31 (Ex. NJ-050; Ex. NJ-051; P.L. 2021, c. 103 (June 4, 2021) (Ex. NJ-053); Ex. NJ-061); Minnesota's telework mandate ran to April 14 and its emergency to July 1 (Ex. MN-037; Ex. MN-041); Kansas's list was updated June 3 (Ex. KS-056); Hawaii's Twenty-First Proclamation issued June 7 (Ex. HI-023); New York's face-covering rule was readopted June 23 and its moratorium extended May 11 (Ex. NY-133; Ex. NY-134; Ex. AGY-ST-UTILITIES-HOUSING-AG-007); Connecticut's universal-masking rule issued May 20 (Ex. CT-047); Massachusetts's modified emergency began May 28 (Ex. MA-049; Ex. MA-050; Ex. MA-054); Maryland terminated its orders in stages from June 15 (Ex. MD-031; Ex. MD-055); Delaware's emergency ran to July 13 (Ex. DE-038); Rhode Island's orders continued (Ex. RI-040; Ex. RI-043; Ex. RI-071); Vermont's post-emergency order issued June 15 (Ex. VT-044); Maine's transition order issued June 30 (Ex. ME-060); Georgia's Economic Recovery emergency was declared June 30 (Ex. GA-041); Tennessee's limited emergency began May 31 (Ex. TN-033); Illinois's proclamation of June 25 governed July 1 (Ex. IL-047); Idaho's was continued June 18 (Ex. ID-046); Florida's Legislature and Governor barred local orders from July 1 (Ex. FL-030; Ex. FL-059); South Carolina's budget provisos of Act No. 94 confined from July 1 what its schools and colleges could require (Ex. SC-045; the legal frame of the State's third quarter, cited as no order); the Navajo Nation re-issued its stay-at-home order April 9 (Ex. AZ-076), declared Yellow Status for businesses from April 26 (Ex. AZ-077), revised its curfews by order of April 22, effective April 26 (Ex. AGY-TRIBAL-019), continued Yellow Status May 21 (Ex. AGY-TRIBAL-020) and moved to Safer at Home June 18 (Ex. AZ-078); Texas's Supreme Court issued its Thirty-Eighth Emergency Order for June 1 to August 1 (Ex. TX-064; Ex. ECO-C-069); the Oklahoma Corporation Commission moved its hearings to Zoom from June 21 (Ex. SEC-23-026). The metros: Denver adopted Public Health Order 20-38 April 16 and the counties adopted the dial as local frameworks (Ex. MET-DEN-014; Ex. MET-DEN-030; Ex. MET-DEN-079; Ex. MET-DEN-106); Clark County's local mitigation plan ran to June 1 (Ex. MET-LAS-003; Ex. MET-LAS-005); Washoe County's ran May 3 to June 1 (Ex. MET-LAS-035); Salt Lake City required face coverings in its facilities from May 10 (Ex. MET-SLC-031; Ex. MET-SLC-032); Los Angeles County's Orange tier order took effect April 15 (Ex. MET-LA-015); San Francisco's Safer Return Together took effect June 15 (Ex. MET-SFO-008); King County's indoor masking directive issued May 20 (Ex. MET-SEA-003); Harris County required screening and face coverings in county buildings from May 25 (Ex. MET-HOU-037); Dallas's Twelfth Amended Emergency Regulations issued May 19 (Ex. MET-DFW-037); the Fifth Judicial District's temporary amendment ran from June 1 (Ex. MET-PIT-032) and its sheriff-sale continuance from June 2 (Ex. MET-PIT-033); the Los Angeles Superior Court ordered face coverings in every courthouse from June 28 (Ex. MET-LA-062); Chicago's Phase 5 order issued June 11 (Ex. MET-CHI-018); Philadelphia's Full Reopening Order issued June 15 (Ex. MET-PHL-018).
The functions reached
CM and DR: the federal conveyance face-covering order on every crew flight and airport all quarter (Ex. FED-020; Ex. FED-051; Ex. FED-056); the land-border limits on every Canadian and Mexican technician and load (Ex. FED-231; Ex. FED-254); Kansas's and Hawaii's quarantines (Ex. KS-056; Ex. HI-023); New Mexico's county framework and lodging caps to June 30 (Ex. NM-054; Ex. NM-057). EX and SV: Colorado's Public Health Order 20-38 (Ex. CO-051); New Mexico's framework and its June 30 order (Ex. NM-057; Ex. NM-060); Pennsylvania's face-covering order to June 28 (Ex. PA-020); Kentucky's Healthy at Work to June 11 (Ex. KY-049); the State OSHA rules of California, Virginia, Oregon, Michigan and Washington (Ex. CA-024; Ex. VA-037; Ex. OR-041; Ex. AGY-ST-LABOR-WORKPLACE-062; Ex. WA-070); the Navajo orders (Ex. AGY-TRIBAL-020). PM: Pennsylvania's Act 21 (Ex. PA-040); the Oklahoma Corporation Commission's Zoom regime (Ex. SEC-23-026); the Texas Supreme Court's order (Ex. TX-064); FERC's continuing waiver regime (Ex. SEC-23-018). PL and CB: the utility moratoria of New Jersey, New York and Washington (Ex. NJ-061; Ex. AGY-ST-UTILITIES-HOUSING-AG-007; Ex. WA-014). SC: the allocation rule to June 30 (Ex. FED-078; Ex. FED-079); Proclamation 10199 (Ex. FED-208); the supply-chain review (Ex. ECO-A-101). HR: the health-care standard on the clinics (Ex. FED-080); New Jersey's protocols to June 4 (Ex. NJ-051); Minnesota's telework mandate to April 14 (Ex. MN-037). OP: Pennsylvania's mitigation orders to May 31 (Ex. PA-031); Harris County's building rules (Ex. MET-HOU-037). WF: the spring school orders; the conveyance face-covering order (Ex. FED-020). CB: the Federal Reserve's April account (Ex. LAW-250).
The finding
During the calendar quarter beginning April 1, 2021 and ending June 30, 2021, orders from appropriate governmental authorities limiting commerce, travel and group meetings due to COVID-19, namely the federal conveyance mask order and security directives, the airborne-transmission control on every flight, bus, train and transportation hub (Ex. FED-020; Ex. FED-051; Ex. FED-056), the entry proclamations and land-border limits (Ex. FED-207; Ex. FED-208; Ex. FED-232; Ex. FED-255), Colorado's Public Health Order 20-38 (Ex. CO-051), New Mexico's county framework and lodging caps to June 30 and its order of June 30 (Ex. NM-054; Ex. NM-057; Ex. NM-060), Pennsylvania's mitigation and face-covering orders to May 31 and June 28 (Ex. PA-031; Ex. PA-020), Kentucky's Healthy at Work to June 11 (Ex. KY-049), the State OSHA rules of California, Virginia, Oregon, Michigan and Washington (Ex. CA-024; Ex. VA-037; Ex. OR-041; Ex. AGY-ST-LABOR-WORKPLACE-062; Ex. WA-070), the Kansas and Hawaii quarantines (Ex. KS-056; Ex. HI-023), the sector regulators' instruments (Ex. SEC-23-026; Ex. SEC-23-018; Ex. PA-040) and the county orders of the industry's cities (Ex. MET-DEN-014; Ex. MET-LAS-003; Ex. MET-HOU-037), caused a temporary delay, interruption or termination of a more than nominal portion of the operations of employers in this industry throughout the United States. They did so by keeping every crew movement by air and every border crossing under federal order, by keeping the Permian's second State under a county framework with capped lodging to the quarter's last day and binding every business in it to COVID-Safe Practices from the next, by keeping the largest Appalachian mining State's mitigation orders in force for two of the quarter's three months, by binding every job site in five States to a workplace-safety rule, and by keeping the regulators' hearings remote.
The third quarter of 2021
On every one of the ninety-two days from July 1 to September 30, 2021, an employer in mining, oil and gas or energy services operated under orders from appropriate governmental authorities limiting commerce, travel and group meetings due to COVID-19: a federal order on every crew flight and airport, a federal order at every land border, binding workplace-safety rules on every job site in four States, universal indoor face-covering requirements, the airborne-transmission controls Louisiana imposed on every person and business from August 4 and New Mexico from August 20, mandatory COVID-Safe Practices on every New Mexico business from the quarter's first day, the Navajo Nation's orders on its mineral lands, a live federal waiver regime for every jurisdictional pipeline and utility, remote hearings at the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, each resting on the emergency declarations of every principal producing State, which this analysis treats as the predicates of those orders. This section is self-contained. It states the Service's premise about the quarter, lists the instruments in force one by one, shows how they reached the industry's functions, states the continuing-suspension analysis, answers the Service's grounds for the quarter, and makes the finding.
A. The Service's premise and what the statute asks
The Service's letters describe the third quarter of 2021 as a quarter in which "no government orders related to COVID-19" were "in effect" that could have suspended an employer in this industry. The description is factually incorrect. It is contradicted by the Federal Register, by the executive orders of a dozen governors, by the public health orders of the Navajo Nation, by the notices of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, by the bulletins of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission and by the administrative orders of the courts of every producing State. The statute asks one question of the quarter: whether "the operation of the trade or business" was "fully or partially suspended during the calendar quarter due to orders from an appropriate governmental authority limiting commerce, travel, or group meetings (for commercial, social, religious, or other purposes) due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)."216 It does not ask whether a stay-home order was in force; it does not ask whether the employer was essential; it does not ask whether the order was addressed to the employer; and it does not grade an order by its resemblance to the spring of 2020's. It asks whether orders limiting commerce, travel or group meetings caused a temporary delay, interruption or termination of a portion of the operation. The instruments below answer that question.
B. The instruments in force, July 1 to September 30, 2021
The federal layer
B-1. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's order requiring persons to wear masks while on conveyances and at transportation hubs, issued January 29, 2021, effective 11:59 p.m. February 1, 2021, "until further notice," under 42 U.S.C. § 264, the airborne-transmission control the Centers imposed on every conveyance and transportation hub; in force July 1 and September 30; enforceable through the conveyance operators it directed and the Transportation Security Administration (Ex. FED-020; Ex. LAW-301). Functions: CM, DR, SV, HR, WF.
B-2. The Transportation Security Administration's Security Directive 1582/84-21-01A, effective May 12, 2021, expiration September 13, 2021, and Security Directive 1582/84-21-01B, effective September 14, 2021, expiration January 18, 2022, each issued under 49 U.S.C. § 114 and enforceable by civil penalty; in force every day (Ex. FED-051; Ex. FED-052; Ex. LAW-305). The aircraft-operator, airport and foreign-carrier directives of January 31, 2021 (Ex. FED-053; Ex. FED-054; Ex. FED-055) ran to May 11, 2021 and were succeeded in the same series. Functions: CM, DR, HR.
B-3. The Department of Homeland Security's notifications limiting land crossings from Canada and Mexico to essential travel: June 23, 2021 (to July 21), July 22 (to August 21), August 23 (to September 21) and September 22 (to October 21); in force every day; enforced at every port of entry (Ex. FED-232; Ex. FED-233; Ex. FED-234; Ex. FED-235; Ex. FED-255; Ex. FED-256; Ex. FED-257; Ex. FED-258). Functions: SC, DR, HR, CM.
B-4. The presidential proclamations suspending entry from China, Iran, the Schengen Area, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Brazil, South Africa and India, in force every day and revoked November 8, 2021 (Ex. FED-200; Ex. FED-201; Ex. FED-207; Ex. FED-208; Ex. FED-209; Ex. LAW-314). Functions: HR, SC, CB.
B-5. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Title 42 order of October 13, 2020, in force to August 2, 2021, and its order of August 2, 2021, in force thereafter; and its pre-departure testing order of January 26, 2021, in force every day (Ex. FED-037; Ex. FED-038; Ex. FED-042). Functions: HR, SC, CM.
B-6. Executive Order 13991 and the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force's Model Safety Principles as revised July 29, 2021, reinstating masks for every person in federal buildings in areas of substantial or high transmission, with the certification of vaccination required of onsite contractors and visitors from August 2021, and Memorandum M-21-25 of June 10, 2021; in force every day (Ex. FED-060; Ex. FED-272; Ex. FED-278; Ex. FED-271). Functions: PM.
B-7. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Revised National Emphasis Program and Updated Interim Enforcement Response Plan, effective July 7, 2021, and its health-care Emergency Temporary Standard, effective June 21, 2021, with its inspection directive of June 28; in force from those dates through the quarter (Ex. FED-083; Ex. FED-084; Ex. FED-080; Ex. FED-081; Ex. FED-062). Functions: EX, SV, HR.
B-8. Executive Order 14042 of September 9, 2021, directing every agency to include in new and renewed contracts from October 15, 2021 a clause requiring contractors and subcontractors to comply with the Task Force's guidance; the Task Force's contractor guidance (September 24, 2021; vaccination deadline December 8, 2021) and the Director's determination of September 24 (published September 28); Executive Order 14043 of the same date; issued and binding on the agencies within the quarter, with contractor obligations attaching through contract clauses from October 15, 2021 (Ex. FED-063; Ex. FED-274; Ex. SEC-09-044; Ex. FED-275; Ex. FED-064). From September 9 every contractor bidding on, renewing or extending a covered contract built the Task Force's protocols into its September bids, staffing plans and subcontracts, because the order fixed October 15 as the day the clause would attach; the compelled change began the day the order issued. Functions: HR, PL, CB.
B-9. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's Order No. 870, delegating to staff the authority to act on COVID-19 waiver and extension requests, in force and not withdrawn (Ex. SEC-23-018); with it, as the Commission's own record, made at the time, of the emergency regime it administered under that order, its Policy Statement on Business Continuity of Energy Infrastructure and its oil-pipeline policy statement, neither withdrawn, and its notice of September 14, 2021 of the request to extend the COVID-19 waiver of the allowance-for-funds-used-during-construction rules to March 31, 2022 (Ex. SEC-23-017; Ex. SEC-23-020; Ex. SEC-23-023). Functions: PL, CB, PM.
B-10. The predicates: the renewal of the public health emergency effective July 20, 2021; the national emergency as continued February 24, 2021; the Stafford Act emergency; the presidential memorandum of August 17, 2021; the scarce-materials designation extended July 7 to November 15, 2021 (Ex. FED-016; Ex. FED-002; Ex. FED-006; Ex. FED-009; Ex. ECO-A-071).
B-11. The Coast Guard's bulletins of June 11 and September 2, 2021 implementing the conveyance mask order in the maritime transportation system, its crew-change bulletin and its credential bulletin to October 31, 2021, cited as the record of the regime at every offshore supply base and not as orders (context: Ex. AGY-USCG-PORTS-037; Ex. AGY-USCG-PORTS-038; Ex. AGY-USCG-PORTS-032; Ex. AGY-USCG-PORTS-028).
The States
B-12. New Mexico. The Secretary of Health's order of June 30, 2021, effective July 1: face coverings for every person not fully vaccinated in indoor public settings; rapid-response case reporting; mandatory COVID-Safe Practices for "[a]ll businesses, establishments, and non-profit entities"; a civil penalty of $5,000 per violation; extended July 30; the order of August 17, 2021 reinstating the universal indoor face-covering requirement for every person from August 20, atop the COVID-Safe Practices; the order of September 15, 2021 extending it to October 15; the Governor's renewal of the emergency September 15; the Supreme Court's protocols of June 29, August 9 and August 16 on every courthouse; in force July 1 and September 30 (Ex. NM-060; Ex. NM-062; Ex. NM-067; Ex. NM-070; Ex. NM-069; Ex. NM-059; Ex. NM-064; Ex. NM-066). Functions: EX, SV, DR, PL, CM, PM, HR, OP, WF, CB.
B-13. Louisiana. Proclamation 117 JBE 2021 of June 22, renewing the emergency with mitigation measures; Proclamation 137 JBE 2021 of August 2, effective August 4: face coverings for every person aged five and older in indoor public spaces, including every business, an airborne-transmission control binding every establishment in the State and, in the same proclamation, public conveyances; renewed by 167 JBE 2021 effective September 1 and 181 JBE 2021 effective September 29 to October 27; enforced under the Louisiana Homeland Security and Emergency Assistance and Disaster Act; in force July 1 (emergency) and September 30 (emergency and face-covering order) (Ex. LA-034; Ex. LA-036; Ex. LA-038; Ex. LA-040). Functions: EX, SV, DR, CM, OP, WF, CB.
B-14. Texas. Executive Order GA-38 of July 29, 2021, continuing the disaster regime and its preemption of local orders; GA-39 of August 25; the Governor's renewal of the disaster declaration of August 29, 2021 under Tex. Gov't Code ch. 418; the Supreme Court of Texas's Thirty-Eighth Emergency Order to August 1 and Fortieth Emergency Order from August 1 to October 1, 2021, governing every court under Tex. Gov't Code § 22.0035; in force July 1 and September 30 (Ex. TX-036; Ex. TX-037; Ex. TX-038; Ex. TX-064; Ex. TX-040; Ex. ECO-C-069; Ex. ECO-C-070; Ex. LAW-331; Ex. LAW-332). Functions: PM, OP.
B-15. Colorado. Public Health Order 20-38 in its Fourth Amended form (July 1 to August 1), Fifth Amended form (August 1 to September 1) and Sixth Amended form (September 1 to October 1), Limited COVID-19 Restrictions on facilities and settings statewide; Executive Orders D 2021 122 of July 8 and D 2021 129 of September 4, continuing the disaster; in force every day (Ex. CO-041; Ex. CO-053; Ex. CO-091; Ex. CO-043; Ex. CO-046). Functions: EX, SV, OP, WF.
B-16. Nevada. Directive 047 of July 27, 2021, effective July 30: face coverings for every person, vaccinated or not, in public indoor spaces in every county of substantial or high transmission, including the mining counties; Directive 048 of August 4 supplying the county mechanics and defining "indoor public setting" to include offices and breakrooms, so that the control reached every Nevada workplace; the emergency declaration of March 12, 2020 as their predicate; in force from July 30 through September 30 (Ex. NV-041; Ex. NV-042; Ex. NV-001), with the State's Delta-variant guidance and Nevada OSHA's enforcement guidance implementing Directive 047 (Ex. NV-067; Ex. NV-060; context). Functions: EX, SC, OP, WF, HR.
B-17. California. Cal/OSHA's COVID-19 Prevention Emergency Temporary Standard as readopted June 17, 2021, binding every employer to a written prevention program, exclusion of exposed employees, testing and outbreak procedures; Executive Order N-84-20 to September 30; the exposure-notice statute; the Beyond the Blueprint order; enforced by citation; in force every day (Ex. CA-024; Ex. CA-022; Ex. CA-065; Ex. CA-029; Ex. LAW-338). Functions: EX, SV, DR, PL, HR, OP.
B-18. Virginia. 16VAC25-220, the Final Permanent Standard, on every employer, amended effective September 8, 2021; the Supreme Court of Virginia's Twenty-Sixth and Twenty-Eighth Orders extending the judicial emergency; in force every day (Ex. VA-037; Ex. VA-038; Ex. VA-041; Ex. VA-042). Functions: PL, OP, HR.
B-19. Oregon. Oregon OSHA's permanent COVID-19 rule of May 4, 2021, amended June 30 and September 16; Executive Order 21-15, extending the emergency to December 31, 2021; OAR 333-019-1025, requiring face coverings indoors of every person from August 13 and in crowded outdoor settings from August 27, an airborne-transmission control layered on the Oregon OSHA rule and enforced by Oregon OSHA from September 16; OAR 333-019-1015 on schools from August 2; in force every day (Ex. OR-041; Ex. OR-044; Ex. AGY-ST-LABOR-WORKPLACE-021; Ex. OR-043; Ex. OR-048; Ex. OR-045). Functions: PL, OP, WF, CM.
B-20. Washington. The occupational-health and airborne-transmission controls of the State's workplace regime, with its utility and travel orders: Proclamation 20-23 suspending utility disconnections to September 30; Proclamation 20-83.2 on arriving travelers; the Secretary of Health's Order 20-03.3 from June 30, requiring face coverings of every unvaccinated person and in listed settings, and Order 20-03.4 from August 23, requiring them of every person indoors; Proclamation 20-25.14 of July 1 and 20-25.15 of August 20 (effective August 23) prohibiting every business from admitting unmasked persons; Proclamation 21-14 of August 9, amended August 20 and September 27, requiring vaccination of State workers and State contractors by October 18; the Department of Labor and Industries' emergency rule WAC 296-800-14035, readopted July 6, August 23 and September 20, making every proclamation a workplace-safety violation; in force every day (Ex. WA-014; Ex. WA-061; Ex. WA-070; Ex. WA-078; Ex. WA-072; Ex. WA-080; Ex. WA-077; Ex. WA-079; Ex. WA-087; Ex. AGY-ST-LABOR-WORKPLACE-054; Ex. AGY-ST-LABOR-WORKPLACE-055; Ex. AGY-ST-LABOR-WORKPLACE-056). Functions: PL, SC, OP, WF, CM, CB, HR.
B-21. Kansas. The Department of Health and Environment's mandatory travel-quarantine list as updated June 3, 2021 and September 23, 2021, requiring quarantine of unvaccinated travelers from the listed locations, with an exemption for critical-infrastructure workers covering work only; in force every day (Ex. KS-056; Ex. KS-057). Functions: CM, DR, HR.
B-22. Illinois. The disaster proclamations of June 25 and September 17, 2021; Executive Order 2021-18 of August 4 on schools, day care and long-term care; Executive Order 2021-20 of August 26, requiring face coverings indoors of every person from August 30, an airborne-transmission control superseded September 3 by Executive Order 2021-22, which restated it and added an employer duty to enforce it in every indoor workplace, and re-issued September 17 through October 16; in force every day (emergency) and from August 30 (face coverings) (Ex. IL-047; Ex. IL-046; Ex. IL-040; Ex. IL-042; Ex. IL-043; Ex. IL-044). Functions: EX, SC, OP, WF, PM.
B-23. The Navajo Nation and Arizona. Public Health Emergency Order 2021-013 of July 7, continuing "Yellow Status" for businesses from July 8; Order 2021-014 of July 8; the Safer-at-Home order of June 18 and its daily curfew to August 4; Order 2021-016 of August 4 re-emphasizing Safer-at-Home requirements; Order 2021-015 clarifying the face-covering mandate for businesses and schools from August 6; Orders 2021-017, 2021-018 and 2021-019 of August 12 declaring "Orange Status" for businesses and schools and revising gathering limits; Arizona's Executive Order 2020-12 to September 29 and its emergency declaration; in force every day (Ex. AZ-079; Ex. AGY-TRIBAL-021; Ex. AZ-078; Ex. AZ-081; Ex. AZ-080; Ex. AZ-082; Ex. AZ-083; Ex. AZ-084; Ex. AZ-005; Ex. AZ-001; Ex. LAW-311). Functions: EX, PL, CM, WF, CB, PM.
B-24. The Mescalero Apache Tribe's Executive Order 21-05, effective August 20, requiring face coverings of every tribal employee, agent and contractor, with the Tribe's other COVID-19 provisions continued; the Cherokee Nation's Executive Order 2021-01-CTH requiring vaccination of executive-branch employees from May 25 to December 31, 2021 (Ex. AGY-TRIBAL-040; Ex. OK-090). Functions: HR, WF.
B-25. Oklahoma. The Corporation Commission's Zoom regime for every courtroom proceeding and Commission meeting from June 21, 2021; Executive Order 2021-16 (Ex. SEC-23-026; Ex. OK-042). Functions: PM.
B-26. Pennsylvania. Act 21 of 2021, extending the Commonwealth's regulatory suspensions to September 30, 2021; Act 73 of September 30, extending them to March 31, 2022; the Acting Secretary's school face-covering order effective September 7; the Department's health-care work-restriction advisory of September 16 (Ex. PA-040; Ex. PA-043; Ex. PA-042; Ex. PA-047). Functions: PM, WF, HR.
B-27. North Dakota. The federal layer at the Williston and Minot airports and the Portal and Pembina ports (Ex. FED-020; Ex. FED-233); House Bills 1118, 1323 and 1465, governing the State Health Officer's powers and barring vaccination-documentation requirements from May 10 and August 1, 2021, state the legal frame of the State's quarter and are cited as no order (Ex. ND-078; Ex. ND-080; Ex. ND-082). Functions: CM, SC, HR.
B-28. Alaska. The Commissioner's public health emergency from May 1, 2021; Addendum No. 1 of September 21 activating crisis standards of care; the Chief Justice's Special Order No. 8322 of August 31 (Ex. AK-030; Ex. AK-031; Ex. AK-060). Functions: HR, WF, PM.
B-29. Hawaii. The Twenty-First Proclamation to August 6 and the Emergency Proclamation of August 5, with the Safe Travels quarantine on every arrival and statewide face coverings; Executive Order 21-05 of August 10 on gatherings (Ex. HI-023; Ex. HI-024; Ex. HI-025). Functions: CM.
B-30. The emergency declarations and remaining orders of the other producing and supplying States, each in force on some or all days of the quarter: West Virginia (Ex. WV-001; Ex. WV-064), Kentucky (Ex. KY-001; Ex. KY-058), Wyoming (Ex. WY-001; Ex. WY-060), Alabama from August 13 (Ex. AL-052), Mississippi (Executive Order 1551, in force throughout, Ex. MS-053), Arkansas from July 29 to September 27 (Ex. AR-017), Montana (Ex. MT-042), Utah's courts from July 30 (Ex. UT-051), Idaho (Ex. ID-047; Ex. ID-030), Nebraska from August 26 (Ex. NE-068), South Dakota's courts (Ex. SD-088), Indiana (Ex. IN-066; Ex. IN-069; Ex. IN-071; Ex. IN-092), Michigan (Ex. MI-057), Minnesota to July 1 (Ex. MN-041; Ex. MN-042), Wisconsin's courts (Ex. WI-029), Missouri (Ex. MO-018 to August 27; Ex. MO-020 from August 27 through the quarter), Iowa (Ex. IA-039; Ex. IA-041), Tennessee (Ex. TN-033; Ex. TN-035, the health-care emergency of August 6 to October 5, 2021; Ex. TN-036), Georgia (Ex. GA-041; Ex. GA-059; Ex. GA-060; Ex. GA-043; Ex. GA-045; Ex. GA-046), Florida (no statewide order in force; the instruments that governed its schools are stated in the next sentence), South Carolina (Ex. SC-054; Ex. SC-055), North Carolina (Ex. NC-001; Ex. NC-030; Ex. NC-031; Ex. NC-066), Vermont (Ex. VT-044; Ex. VT-074), New Hampshire's published guidance implementing its isolation requirements and its 2021-22 school requirements (context: Ex. NH-063; Ex. NH-066), Maine (Ex. ME-060; Ex. ME-061), Delaware to July 13 and its emergency orders of August and September (Ex. DE-038; Ex. DE-045; Ex. DE-055), Maryland (Ex. MD-055; Ex. MD-061), the District of Columbia with indoor face coverings for every person from July 31 (Ex. DC-021; Ex. DC-057), New Jersey (Ex. NJ-052; Ex. NJ-050; Ex. NJ-051; P.L. 2021, c. 103 (June 4, 2021) (Ex. NJ-053); Executive Order No. 252 (Aug. 6, 2021; effective Sept. 7, 2021) (Ex. NJ-056); Ex. NJ-061), New York (Ex. NY-133; Ex. NY-071; Ex. AGY-ST-UTILITIES-HOUSING-AG-007), Connecticut (Ex. CT-048; Ex. CT-050; Ex. CT-047; Ex. CT-065), Massachusetts (Ex. MA-049; Ex. MA-050; Ex. MA-054) and Rhode Island (Ex. RI-049; Ex. RI-052; Ex. RI-059; Ex. RI-060; Ex. RI-066; Ex. RI-071). Florida's Executive Order 21-175 of July 30, 2021 (Ex. FL-063), South Carolina's Provisos 1.108 and 117.190 of Act No. 94 of 2021 (Ex. SC-045), Oklahoma's Senate Bill 658 (Ex. OK-043), Montana's House Bill 702 (Ex. MT-072), Wyoming's House Enrolled Act 93 (Ex. WY-055) and North Dakota's House Bills 1118, 1323 and 1465 (Ex. ND-078; Ex. ND-080; Ex. ND-082) are the instruments by which those legislatures and governors confined what their own officials could require in the quarter; they are cited to state the legal frame of those States' third quarter, and this analysis treats none of them as an order limiting commerce, travel or group meetings.
The metros
B-31. The metropolitan instruments of the quarter were, in the main, the workplace infection-prevention and exposure-control requirements the counties and cities re-imposed as the Delta wave rose: universal indoor face-covering orders binding every business, screening and distancing rules in public buildings and courts, school orders, and vaccination or testing conditions on public employees, contractors and patrons. They were Harris County's building screening and face-covering orders, its Local Health Authority's school order of August 12 and its courts' protocols from August 12 (Ex. MET-HOU-037; Ex. MET-HOU-039; Ex. MET-HOU-038; Ex. MET-HOU-052; Ex. MET-HOU-053; Ex. MET-HOU-054); Dallas County's face-covering orders of August 11 and 16 and its disaster declaration of September 29 (Ex. MET-DFW-028; Ex. MET-DFW-031; Ex. MET-DFW-055); Bexar County's NW-21, the City's Fourteenth Addendum, the Health Authority's directive and the courts' jury suspension (Ex. MET-SAT-067; Ex. MET-SAT-068; Ex. MET-SAT-066; Ex. MET-SAT-063); Travis County's and Austin's face-covering orders and rules of August 11 (Ex. MET-AUS-052; Ex. MET-AUS-024; Ex. MET-AUS-030); Denver's adoption of each amendment of Public Health Order 20-38 and its vaccination and school orders (Ex. MET-DEN-021; Ex. MET-DEN-022; Ex. MET-DEN-026; Ex. MET-DEN-023; Ex. MET-DEN-025; Ex. MET-DEN-024), Boulder's and Jefferson County's universal indoor face-covering orders (Ex. MET-DEN-033; Ex. MET-DEN-102) and the judicial districts' orders (Ex. MET-DEN-058; Ex. MET-DEN-066); the Fifth Judicial District's masking order of August 10, its extended emergency to October 1 and Pittsburgh's paid-sick-leave ordinance of July 27 (Ex. MET-PIT-036; Ex. MET-PIT-037; Ex. MET-PIT-040; Ex. MET-PIT-055; Ex. MET-PIT-051); New Orleans's indoor face-covering mandate of July 31, its vaccination-or-test requirement of August 16 and its employee and contractor order, Executive Order LC 21-05 of August 19, 2021, with vaccination-or-testing requirements effective August 30, 2021 (Ex. MET-MSY-032), and Jefferson Parish's face-covering proclamation of August 4 (Ex. MET-MSY-027; Ex. MET-MSY-029; Ex. MET-MSY-063); Clark County's employee face-covering requirement of July 22, with its signage duty on every business, and the Eighth Judicial District's order of July 19 (Ex. MET-LAS-006; Ex. MET-LAS-019); Summit County's Declaration of Local Public Health Emergency and Order of Constraint, issued August 21 and effective August 25, Salt Lake County's Public Health Order 2021-2 of August 11 and the City's orders (Ex. MET-SLC-018; Ex. MET-SLC-016; Ex. MET-SLC-076; Ex. MET-SLC-029; Ex. MET-SLC-030); the Maricopa County Superior Court's distancing and face-covering orders of July 28 and August 9 (Ex. MET-PHX-015; Ex. MET-PHX-016); Los Angeles County's Beyond the Blueprint orders effective July 17 and August 19, the latter in force to October 7, and the City's Safer L.A. order (Ex. MET-LA-018; Ex. MET-LA-019; Ex. MET-LA-035; Ex. MET-LA-045); the Bay Area's indoor face-covering orders of August 3 and San Francisco's proof-of-vaccination rule (Ex. MET-SFO-010; Ex. MET-SFO-011; Ex. MET-SFO-049; Ex. MET-SFO-071); King County's masking orders and its vaccination-verification order (issued September 16, 2021; entry requirement from October 25, 2021; cited for its issuance) and Seattle's employee mandate (Ex. MET-SEA-002; Ex. MET-SEA-001; Ex. MET-SEA-018; Ex. MET-SEA-019); Chicago's indoor face-covering order of August 20 (Ex. MET-CHI-026); Atlanta's of July 28 (Ex. MET-ATL-063); Boston's of August 27 (Ex. MET-BOS-013); Philadelphia's of August 12 (Ex. MET-PHL-019); Kansas City's of August 9 and 19 (Ex. MET-KC-045; Ex. MET-KC-002); St. Louis's of July 26 (Ex. MET-STL-021); Cleveland's of August 3 (Ex. MET-CLE-009); Columbus's of September 14 (Ex. MET-CMH-050); Sacramento County's of July 30 (Ex. MET-SAC-015); Baltimore's of August 10 (Ex. MET-BAL-017); New York City's Key to NYC from August 17 (Ex. MET-NYC-017); the transit authorities' enforcement of the federal order in every metro (Ex. MET-DEN-034; Ex. MET-SLC-090; Ex. MET-NYC-046; Ex. MET-BAL-107).
B-32. The utility moratoria and protections: New York's statutory moratorium to December 21, 2021; Washington's Proclamation 20-23 to September 30; New Jersey's grace period to December 31; Connecticut's PURA order (Ex. AGY-ST-UTILITIES-HOUSING-AG-007; Ex. WA-014; Ex. NJ-061; Ex. CT-065). The municipal utilities' own announcements of their suspensions, CPS Energy's, Austin Energy's, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's and SMUD's, are cited as the record of the regime and not as orders (context: Ex. AGY-LOCAL-DISTRICTS-AUTHORITIES-041; Ex. AGY-LOCAL-DISTRICTS-AUTHORITIES-071; Ex. AGY-LOCAL-DISTRICTS-AUTHORITIES-060; Ex. AGY-LOCAL-DISTRICTS-AUTHORITIES-019). Functions: PL, CB.
B-33. North Carolina's Executive Order 230 of August 31, extending hours-of-service relief for fuel delivery, and Georgia's Executive Order 08.30.21.01 suspending hours-of-service rules for thirty days, each a governmental statement that the fuel supply chain was still disordered (Ex. NC-066; Ex. GA-045). Functions: SC, CB.
B-34. The health-care orders on the clinics and hospitals the industry's workforce depends on: the federal standard; Los Angeles County's and Denver's vaccination orders; New York's, New Jersey's and Maine's health-care-worker rules; Alaska's crisis standards (Ex. FED-080; Ex. MET-LA-023; Ex. MET-DEN-023; Ex. NY-071; Ex. NJ-056; Ex. ME-061; Ex. AK-031). Functions: HR, CB.
B-35. The school and child-care orders of the 2021-22 year: Illinois, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Tennessee, Delaware, Harris County, Bexar County, Travis County, Denver and the Front Range counties, Salt Lake and Summit Counties, Vermont, Wyoming and, as the State's published guidance implementing its 2021-22 school requirements, New Hampshire's toolkit (context) (Ex. IL-040; Ex. PA-042; Ex. OR-045; Ex. TN-036; Ex. DE-045; Ex. MET-HOU-038; Ex. MET-SAT-066; Ex. MET-AUS-050; Ex. MET-DEN-024; Ex. MET-DEN-081; Ex. MET-DEN-082; Ex. MET-SLC-076; Ex. MET-SLC-016; Ex. MET-SLC-081, context; Ex. VT-074; Ex. WY-060; Ex. NH-066, context). Functions: WF.
B-36. The courts and public offices: the Texas Supreme Court's orders; the New Mexico Supreme Court's protocols; the Kentucky Court of Justice's order of August 9; the Supreme Court of Virginia's orders; Utah's courthouse face-covering order; South Dakota's standing order; Wisconsin's order; South Carolina's trial-court orders to August 27; Alaska's Special Order; the District of Arizona's General Order 21-15; the county courts of Harris, Bexar, Travis, Dallas, Maricopa, Clark, Los Angeles and Allegheny Counties and the Denver-area districts (Ex. TX-040; Ex. NM-066; Ex. KY-058; Ex. VA-042; Ex. UT-051; Ex. SD-088; Ex. WI-029; Ex. SC-054; Ex. SC-055; Ex. AK-060; Ex. ECO-C-136; Ex. MET-HOU-052; Ex. MET-SAT-063; Ex. MET-AUS-062; Ex. MET-PHX-016; Ex. MET-LAS-019; Ex. MET-LA-062; Ex. MET-PIT-036; Ex. MET-DEN-058). Functions: PM.
The workforce
B-37. The quarantine and isolation orders on exposed and infected persons: Rhode Island's Quarantine and Isolation Orders of September 1, 2 and 30; Indiana's control measures with executive-order status from August 1; Allegheny County's isolation and quarantine rules; San Diego County's isolation and quarantine orders; New Hampshire's published self-isolation guide implementing its isolation requirements (context); Pennsylvania's health-care work-restriction advisory; Michigan's quarantine-leave statute; the Kansas list (Ex. RI-059; Ex. RI-060; Ex. RI-066; Ex. IN-092; Ex. MET-PIT-014; Ex. MET-SAN-023; Ex. MET-SAN-024; Ex. NH-063, context; Ex. PA-047; Ex. MI-057; Ex. KS-057). Functions: HR, WF.
B-38. The public-employee and contractor vaccination orders that reached the industry's counterparties and its own contractors: Washington's Proclamation 21-14 on State contractors; Executive Order 14042 on federal contractors; Denver's, Seattle's, King County's, New Orleans's and Allegheny County's employee orders; the Cherokee Nation's (Ex. WA-077; Ex. FED-063; Ex. MET-DEN-023; Ex. MET-SEA-018; Ex. MET-SEA-024, context; Ex. MET-MSY-032; Ex. MET-PIT-051; Ex. OK-090). Functions: HR, CB, PL.
C. How the instruments reached the functions
EX, extraction and production sites. Every New Mexico well pad, gas plant and mine operated from July 1 under mandatory COVID-Safe Practices with a $5,000 penalty and from August 20 under the universal indoor face-covering requirement the same regime layered on those practices (Ex. NM-060; Ex. NM-067); every Louisiana site from August 4 under the statewide face-covering order, the airborne-transmission control the State imposed on every indoor workplace (Ex. LA-036); every California, Virginia, Oregon and Washington site under a workplace-safety rule enforceable by citation (Ex. CA-024; Ex. VA-037; Ex. OR-041; Ex. AGY-ST-LABOR-WORKPLACE-054); every Nevada mine in a substantial- or high-transmission county from July 30 under Directive 047 (Ex. NV-041); every Illinois mine from August 30 under Executive Order 2021-20 (Ex. IL-042); the Navajo Mine, the Kayenta lease and the Aneth field under Yellow and Orange Status (Ex. AZ-079; Ex. AZ-082); every Colorado facility under Public Health Order 20-38 (Ex. CO-041; Ex. CO-053; Ex. CO-091); and every site inspected under the Revised National Emphasis Program (Ex. FED-083).
SV and DR, well services and crews. Every crew that flew to a rotation, boarded a helicopter, rode a crew bus or passed through an airport did so under the federal conveyance face-covering order and the security directives on every day of the quarter (Ex. FED-020; Ex. FED-051; Ex. FED-052); every crew arriving in Kansas from a listed location quarantined unless vaccinated (Ex. KS-056; Ex. KS-057); every Canadian technician crossed under an essential-travel limit (Ex. FED-233; Ex. FED-234); every New Mexico and Louisiana crew worked indoors under those States' face-covering requirements from August 20 and August 4 (Ex. NM-067; Ex. LA-036).
PL, pipeline and utility construction. Every FERC-jurisdictional pipeline and utility operated under FERC's waiver regime (Ex. SEC-23-023; Ex. SEC-23-018); every utility under a moratorium or grace period deferred its capital program (Ex. AGY-ST-UTILITIES-HOUSING-AG-007; Ex. WA-014; Ex. NJ-061); every Washington State contractor faced an October 18 vaccination deadline (Ex. WA-077); every federal contractor was addressed by Executive Order 14042 of September 9, whose clause every covered contract carried from October 15, 2021 (Ex. FED-063); every California, Virginia, Oregon and Washington right-of-way was a workplace under the State rule.
CM, lodging and travel. The federal air layer (Ex. FED-020), the borders (Ex. FED-232; Ex. FED-255), Hawaii's Safe Travels (Ex. HI-024), Kansas's list (Ex. KS-057), Washington's traveler proclamation (Ex. WA-061), the Navajo Nation's lodging and road rules (Ex. AZ-079; Ex. AZ-081) and the indoor face-covering requirements, with the screening, capacity and vaccination-verification conditions the cities attached to them, in every hotel, restaurant and airport of Louisiana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Illinois, Washington, the District and forty cities (Ex. LA-036; Ex. NM-067; Ex. NV-041; Ex. OR-048; Ex. IL-042; Ex. WA-078; Ex. DC-057; Ex. MET-MSY-027; Ex. MET-DFW-028; Ex. MET-SFO-010).
PM, permits and regulators. The Oklahoma Corporation Commission's remote hearings (Ex. SEC-23-026); the Texas Supreme Court's emergency orders on every court (Ex. TX-040); the New Mexico protocols (Ex. NM-066); the federal buildings under reinstated masks and certification (Ex. FED-272; Ex. FED-278); Pennsylvania's regulatory suspensions (Ex. PA-040); the county courts of every basin city (Ex. MET-HOU-052; Ex. MET-PHX-016; Ex. MET-PIT-036).
SC, equipment and supply. The land-border limits (Ex. FED-234; Ex. FED-257), the entry proclamations (Ex. FED-207; Ex. FED-208), the scarce-materials designation (Ex. ECO-A-071), the hours-of-service instruments of North Carolina and Georgia (Ex. NC-066; Ex. GA-045), the Federal Reserve's account of "supply disruptions and labor shortages" (Ex. LAW-220; Ex. LAW-211).
HR, hiring and credentials. The entry proclamations and testing order on every foreign engineer (Ex. FED-207; Ex. FED-042); the clinics under the federal standard and the local vaccination orders (Ex. FED-080; Ex. MET-LA-023); the quarantine and isolation orders on every exposed employee (Ex. RI-059; Ex. IN-092; Ex. MET-PIT-014); the contractor vaccination rules (Ex. WA-077; Ex. FED-063).
OP, offices. The indoor face-covering requirements of New Mexico, Louisiana, Nevada, Oregon, Illinois, Washington and the District, the airborne-transmission controls those jurisdictions imposed on every office, Nevada's Directive 048 naming offices and breakrooms in terms, Illinois's Executive Order 2021-22 placing the duty of enforcement on the employer and Washington's enforced as a workplace-safety violation (Ex. NM-067; Ex. LA-036; Ex. NV-041; Ex. NV-042; Ex. OR-048; Ex. IL-042; Ex. IL-043; Ex. WA-080; Ex. AGY-ST-LABOR-WORKPLACE-055; Ex. DC-057); the county orders on every Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, Denver, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Bay Area and Seattle office (Ex. MET-HOU-039; Ex. MET-DFW-031; Ex. MET-SAT-067; Ex. MET-AUS-052; Ex. MET-DEN-026; Ex. MET-MSY-029; Ex. MET-LA-019; Ex. MET-SFO-010; Ex. MET-SEA-002).
WF, the workforce's dependencies. The school orders of the 2021-22 year (Ex. IL-040; Ex. PA-042; Ex. OR-045; Ex. MET-HOU-038; Ex. MET-DEN-024); the conveyance face-covering order on every commute (Ex. FED-020); the quarantine orders.
CB, the counterparties. The producers under the same orders; the utilities under moratoria; the refiners in Louisiana, California and Washington under face-covering and workplace rules; the Federal Reserve's September account (Ex. LAW-211).
D. The continuing-suspension analysis
The suspension the orders caused in 2020 and the first half of 2021 continued into the third quarter of 2021 by four pathways, each grounded in text and each independent of the others.
The clause's grammar. The clause asks whether the operation "is fully or partially suspended during the calendar quarter due to orders." The words "during the calendar quarter" modify "suspended." Congress did not write "orders in effect during the calendar quarter," and it wrote the same words in 2020 and again in 2021.217 A suspension an order caused continues, because of that order, for the period its compelled dismantling takes to reverse; Tri-State defines suspension to include a "delay" and holds that "due to" is but-for causation; and the Notice's own Q&A-22 makes an employer suspended "during a portion of a calendar quarter" eligible "for the entire calendar quarter," while Q&A-16 recognizes that "some adjustment period is expected" and that a "significant delay ... in moving operations" is itself "a partial suspension during that transition period."218
The orders in force. Part B above lists thirty-eight classes of instruments in force on some or every day of the quarter. This analysis never says that an expired order suspended anyone by its own force. It says that the instruments in Part B were the orders, and that the suspension the earlier orders caused continued because of them and because of the earlier orders' own terms.
The counterparty orders. The utilities, refiners, clinics, schools, courts, transit systems and federal offices on which the industry's functions depend were under the orders in B-32 through B-38, and Q&A-12's own logic, which the United States confirmed to the Ninth Circuit, treats an order on a third party as an order that suspends the employer "due to" it.219
The restoration arithmetic. The arithmetic is stated from the orders' own terms and from the regulators' own records. North Dakota's regulator recorded fifty-five rigs on April 14, 2020 and thirty-five on July 17, 2020, and "the number of active completion crews decreasing from 25 to 1" between April and June 2020, with 193 wells waiting on completion in July (Ex. SEC-23-013; Ex. SEC-23-015; Ex. SEC-23-016); the rig that stacked and the crew that dispersed in the spring of 2020 were not drilling and completing on July 1, 2021 at the rate of February 2020, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics' own count of support activities for mining stood at 231,400 in September 2021 against 313,400 in February 2020, twenty-six percent lower, while "Mining employment has risen by 59,000 since a trough in August 2020 but is 93,000 below a peak in January 2019" (Ex. LAW-223). New Mexico capped every hotel, motel and RV park at fifty percent on March 24, 2020, at twenty-five percent on April 7, at fifty percent by June 30, at sixty and twenty-five percent on October 16, at twenty-five percent on November 16, by county color from December 2 (forty and twenty-five percent at Red, sixty and twenty-five at Yellow, seventy-five and forty at Green, for NM Safe Certified and other lodging), at one hundred percent for certified lodging and fifty percent for all other lodging at the Turquoise level added February 24, 2021, with every county Turquoise by June 30, 2021, and lifted the last cap only on July 1, 2021, the first day of the quarter, while binding every business to COVID-Safe Practices the same day (Ex. NM-006; Ex. NM-010; Ex. NM-023; Ex. NM-033; Ex. NM-039; Ex. NM-041; Ex. NM-054; Ex. NM-057; Ex. NM-060); the crew camps and hotel blocks of the Permian's second State had operated under a cap for fifteen months and under a quarantine of every arrival for more than seven, from July 1, 2020 to February 10, 2021 (Ex. NM-024; Ex. NM-051), and the operation that had shed and rerouted its crews under those caps was not restored on the day they lifted. Pennsylvania marked its mines and mining contractors "No" on its list of March 19, 2020, bound every reopened business to the Worker Safety Order from April 19, 2020 to May 31, 2021, mandated remote operation "unless not possible" from July 16, 2020 and "unless impossible" from November 27, 2020 to April 3, 2021, kept the mitigation orders' capacity, gathering, alcohol and workplace rules to May 31, 2021, required face coverings to June 28, 2021 and quarantined every arriving person from November 20, 2020 to March 1, 2021 (Ex. PA-004; Ex. PA-008; Ex. PA-016; Ex. PA-022; Ex. PA-033; Ex. PA-035; Ex. PA-036; Ex. PA-020; Ex. PA-021; Ex. PA-032); the last of those orders expired two days before the quarter began, and its regulatory suspensions ran through the quarter's last day (Ex. PA-040). Texas held every deferred regulatory obligation of every operator to December 31, 2020 and required face coverings and capacity limits, its workplace infection-prevention and exposure-control requirements, on every site to March 10, 2021 (Ex. SEC-23-007; Ex. TX-022; Ex. TX-025; Ex. TX-029). Colorado's face-covering order ran to June 1, 2021 and its dial to April 16, 2021, and Public Health Order 20-38 ran through the quarter (Ex. CO-031; Ex. CO-057; Ex. CO-051; Ex. CO-091). The federal air layer began February 1, 2021 and did not end in the period; the land-border limits began March 21, 2020 and ended November 8, 2021 (Ex. FED-020; Ex. FED-216; Ex. FED-236). The Federal Reserve described the result in its own words on September 8, 2021: "supply disruptions and labor shortages" that the spring-2020 dismantling had caused and that continued under the orders then in force (Ex. LAW-211). An operation ordered to run at a fraction of its capacity, with its crews confined, its lodging capped and its deadlines rolled for fifteen months, does not run at February 2020's capacity on the day the last cap lifts, and in this quarter the caps had not all lifted.
E. The Service's grounds for the quarter, answered
The Service's grounds for this quarter are stated below in its general vocabulary and answered from Part B, the statute and the United States' own representations; the section on the Service's positions below answers the fourteen grounds for every quarter.
No government orders were in effect.
Part B lists them, with issuer, date, operative clause and status. The ground is factually incorrect. It describes a quarter that did not occur.
The orders had lifted; any effect was a lingering effect.
The stay-home orders had lifted. The orders in Part B had not. The Service's own Q&A-22 makes a suspension "during a portion of a calendar quarter" a suspension for the whole quarter, and Tri-State defines suspension to include "delay"; the Service cannot administer the clause as though Congress had written "orders in effect during the quarter" when Congress wrote "suspended during the calendar quarter."220 The Service is free to call the continuing suspension by another name. It is not free to say the orders that continued it did not exist.
Masks and screening had only a nominal effect.
The United States told the District Court that "employees having to wear face masks may impact business operations" and that "orders that were otherwise directed at business operations (operational hours, space, etc.) would also be considered."221 Q&A-18's own first paragraph lists face-covering requirements among the modifications "required by a governmental order as a condition of reopening."222 The face-covering orders of Louisiana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Illinois and Washington were workplace infection-prevention and exposure-control requirements, each an order limiting commerce in terms and each accompanied, in the same or a companion instrument of the same State, by employer duties, mandatory COVID-Safe Practices, workplace-safety enforcement or vaccination conditions, and the statute asks only whether they caused a delay, interruption or termination of a portion of the operation. The Service's categorical sentence is a factual conclusion stated as a rule, with no record behind it, and it yields to the record.
The employer was essential and remained open.
The statute does not ask whether an employer was essential. "The construction, mining, manufacturing, and infrastructure sector labor force may continue operations, but shall maintain strict social distancing practices" (Ex. NV-004) is the grammar of every essential designation in the record: a permission to operate on conditions. In the third quarter of 2021 the conditions were the orders in Part B. An employer that "remained open" under a $5,000-per-violation COVID-Safe Practices order was open on the terms the order set.
A declaration of emergency is not an order.
The emergency declarations in B-10 and B-30 are cited as predicates, not as orders. The orders are the instruments that the declarations authorized and that Part B lists. Q&A-10 itself lists "A State's emergency proclamation that residents must shelter in place" as a qualifying order; the Service's own list does not distinguish a proclamation from an order by its title.223
The federal orders were not addressed to the employer.
The statute says nothing of the source of the order or of its addressee; it asks whether the order was from an appropriate governmental authority and limited commerce, travel or group meetings. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is the appropriate authority over interstate conveyances under 42 U.S.C. § 264; the Transportation Security Administration over transportation security under 49 U.S.C. § 114; the Secretary of Homeland Security over the ports of entry. Each limited travel. The crew that could not board unmasked and the technician who could not cross for non-essential purposes were the industry's own operations, limited.
F. The finding
During the calendar quarter beginning July 1, 2021 and ending September 30, 2021, orders from appropriate governmental authorities limiting commerce, travel and group meetings due to COVID-19, namely the federal conveyance mask order and security directives, the airborne-transmission control on every flight, bus, train and transportation hub (Ex. FED-020; Ex. FED-051; Ex. FED-052), the land-border limits and entry proclamations (Ex. FED-232; Ex. FED-233; Ex. FED-234; Ex. FED-235; Ex. FED-255; Ex. FED-256; Ex. FED-257; Ex. FED-258; Ex. FED-207; Ex. FED-208), the Title 42 and testing orders (Ex. FED-037; Ex. FED-038; Ex. FED-042), the federal workplace orders and the contractor order of September 9, 2021, issued in the quarter with its clauses attaching from October 15 (Ex. FED-060; Ex. FED-272; Ex. FED-063; Ex. FED-275), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's programs and standard (Ex. FED-083; Ex. FED-080), FERC's waiver regime under Order No. 870 (Ex. SEC-23-018), in force and being extended into 2022 on September 14, 2021 (Ex. SEC-23-023), New Mexico's orders of June 30, July 30, August 17 and September 15 (Ex. NM-060; Ex. NM-062; Ex. NM-067; Ex. NM-070), Louisiana's Proclamations 137, 167 and 181 JBE 2021 (Ex. LA-036; Ex. LA-038; Ex. LA-040), Colorado's Public Health Order 20-38 (Ex. CO-041; Ex. CO-053; Ex. CO-091), Nevada's Directive 047 (Ex. NV-041), the State OSHA rules of California, Virginia, Oregon and Washington (Ex. CA-024; Ex. VA-037; Ex. OR-041; Ex. OR-044; Ex. AGY-ST-LABOR-WORKPLACE-055), the face-covering orders of Oregon, Illinois, Washington and the District, the airborne-transmission controls those jurisdictions imposed on every indoor workplace (Ex. OR-048; Ex. IL-042; Ex. IL-043; Ex. IL-044; Ex. WA-078; Ex. WA-080; Ex. DC-057), Washington's contractor proclamation (Ex. WA-077), Kansas's quarantine list (Ex. KS-056; Ex. KS-057), the Navajo Nation's orders (Ex. AZ-079; Ex. AZ-080; Ex. AZ-082; Ex. AZ-084), the Oklahoma Corporation Commission's remote-hearing regime (Ex. SEC-23-026), the Texas Supreme Court's emergency orders (Ex. TX-064; Ex. TX-040), the utility moratoria (Ex. AGY-ST-UTILITIES-HOUSING-AG-007; Ex. WA-014; Ex. NJ-061), the school, quarantine and health-care orders on the workforce and its counterparties (Ex. IL-040; Ex. PA-042; Ex. RI-059; Ex. IN-092; Ex. FED-080) and the county and city orders of the industry's office and supply cities (Ex. MET-HOU-052; Ex. MET-DFW-028; Ex. MET-SAT-067; Ex. MET-AUS-052; Ex. MET-DEN-026; Ex. MET-PIT-036; Ex. MET-MSY-027; Ex. MET-LAS-006; Ex. MET-SLC-016; Ex. MET-PHX-016; Ex. MET-LA-019; Ex. MET-SFO-010; Ex. MET-SEA-002), caused a temporary delay, interruption or termination of a more than nominal portion of the operations of employers in this industry throughout the United States. They did so by placing every crew movement by air and every border crossing under federal order on every day of the quarter, by binding every New Mexico business to COVID-Safe Practices under penalty from the quarter's first day and every New Mexico and Louisiana site to a universal indoor face-covering requirement from August 20 and August 4, by binding every job site in four States to a workplace-safety rule enforceable by citation, by placing every Nevada mining county from July 30, every Oregon site from August 13 and every Illinois site from August 30 under the airborne-transmission controls of Directive 047, OAR 333-019-1025 and Executive Orders 2021-20 and 2021-22, by keeping every FERC-jurisdictional pipeline and utility under a waiver regime and every utility customer under a moratorium, by keeping the courts and the Oklahoma Corporation Commission remote, by imposing a vaccination deadline on every Washington State contractor and ordering, on September 9, the clause that bound every covered federal contractor from October 15, 2021, and by continuing, through the orders' own restoration arithmetic, the suspension that the closures, caps and quarantines of the preceding fifteen months had caused.
What this analysis does not count as in force
The proof for this quarter rests on none of the following, each of which had expired before July 1, 2021 and each of which is named so that the point is visible: the stay-home and non-essential-closure orders of every State (the last, New Mexico's county framework, ended June 30, 2021, Ex. NM-057; California's N-33-20 ended June 15, 2021, Ex. CA-002); Texas GA-14 (April 30, 2020, Ex. TX-008), GA-11 (May 21, 2020, Ex. TX-006), GA-12 (May 1, 2020, Ex. TX-007), GA-29 and GA-32 (March 10, 2021, Ex. TX-022; Ex. TX-025); North Dakota's arrival quarantine (September 21, 2020, Ex. ND-056), its face-covering order and capacity limits (January 18, 2021, Ex. ND-066; Ex. ND-074) and its emergency (April 30, 2021, Ex. ND-081); the arrival quarantines of Montana (June 1, 2020, Ex. MT-010), Wyoming (May 8, 2020, Ex. WY-010), Oklahoma (May 12, 2020, Ex. OK-010), Kentucky (May 22, 2020, Ex. KY-016), Utah (May 1, 2020, Ex. UT-008), West Virginia (May 21, 2020, Ex. WV-012), Alaska (February 14, 2021, Ex. AK-035), New Mexico (February 10, 2021, Ex. NM-051) and Pennsylvania (March 1, 2021, Ex. PA-032); the face-covering orders of Colorado (June 1, 2021, Ex. CO-031), Wyoming (March 15, 2021, Ex. WY-040), Utah (April 10, 2021, Ex. UT-029), Pennsylvania (June 28, 2021, Ex. PA-020), Kentucky (June 11, 2021, Ex. KY-049), West Virginia (June 20, 2021, Ex. WV-051, ended by Ex. WV-066) and Louisiana's first (July 13, 2020 to April 28, 2021, Ex. LA-014; lifted by Proclamation 79 JBE 2021, Ex. LA-030; Jefferson Parish's parallel proclamation, Ex. MET-MSY-060); Pennsylvania's telework mandate (April 3, 2021, Ex. PA-033) and its mitigation orders (May 31, 2021, Ex. PA-022; Ex. PA-023; Ex. PA-031; Ex. PA-035; Ex. PA-036); New Jersey's Executive Order 192 as a free-standing order (its general worksite protocols ended June 4, 2021, Ex. NJ-051; its masking, distancing and daily health-check requirements for unvaccinated or unverified employees continued under Executive Orders 242 and 243 through the quarter, Ex. NJ-050; Ex. NJ-051); Michigan's OSHA rules (June 22, 2021, Ex. MI-054; Ex. AGY-ST-LABOR-WORKPLACE-062); the Railroad Commission's deadline regime (December 31, 2020, Ex. SEC-23-007); New Mexico's lodging caps (June 30, 2021, Ex. NM-057); the Navajo Nation's stay-at-home orders (the last, re-issued April 9, 2021, Ex. AZ-076, was rescinded June 18, 2021 and replaced by the Safer-at-Home order that continued into the quarter, Ex. AZ-078; Ex. AZ-081); the Families First paid-leave mandates (December 31, 2020, Ex. FED-172); the respirator allocation rule (June 30, 2021, Ex. FED-078); the nonimmigrant entry suspension (March 31, 2021, Ex. FED-211); the federal occupancy limit (June 10, 2021, Ex. FED-271); Minnesota's emergency (July 1, 2021, Ex. MN-041), which is counted for one day only; and the Texas Supreme Court's Forty-Third Emergency Order (effective October 1, 2021, Ex. ECO-C-071), Indiana's Executive Order 21-27 (signed September 30, 2021; effective October 1, 2021, Ex. IN-073), Tennessee's Executive Order No. 88 (signed September 30, 2021; effective October 5, 2021, Ex. TN-037), which extended Executive Order No. 83, and Los Angeles County's Beyond the Blueprint order issued September 17, 2021 (effective October 7, 2021, Ex. MET-LA-020), none of which is counted at all. The quarter's proof stands on the instruments in Part B and on nothing else.
The quarter the Service's letters most often dispute. The record shows these instruments in force on this industry's functions between July 1 and September 30, 2021; an order in force on any day of the quarter is an order in force during it, and the State, metropolitan and federal layers on the quarter page add to the list.