Your Guide to Emerging Issues in Environmental Regulation and Litigation.
Through the modern industrial age, there’s always been a push-and-pull between the utility of our innovations and the risks they often inadvertently create. In the 70’s, we discovered the synthetic pesticide that was so effectively combating typhus and malaria, DDT, was causing breast cancer and impairing neurological development in babies. In the 80’s and 90’s, …
As coastal erosion continues to shrink beaches, the sand that remains has become ever more valuable; and in Maine, a battle over the beach has reached the state’s highest court. In most coastal states, the intertidal land — (the land subject to the ebb and flow of the tides) — is owned by the state …
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is responsible for licensing the companies that charter private space transportation. To issue a license for commercial space travel, the FAA is required under the National Environmental Policy Act to assess how their licensees’ activities may impact the environment. FAA policy requires before issuing a license for space travel that …
Recently, there’s been much discussion about the potential benefits that artificial intelligence can bring to climate change regulation. For example, advanced technology, such as satellite data, is being used to identify large emission events — (see ELM’s recent methane rule finalization coverage here and ELM’s previous AI coverage here). AI also is being used to …
The Environmental Protection Agency earlier this week issued an enforcement alert, explaining cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities to community drinking water systems (CWSs) and actions needed by these systems in order to comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). The alert is part of a government-wide effort – led by the National Security Council and the Department of …
In late April, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a ban on most uses of methylene chloride, a toxic solvent used for paint stripping and linked to over 85 deaths in the last 45 years. The ban forbids all consumer use of the substance, as well as most industrial and commercial uses. TheEPA did not completely …
Attorneys General from 23 states have filed a petition for rulemaking with the Environmental Protection Agency demanding the agency stop using Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when regulating pollution. The petition, the main signatory of which is Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, comes on the heels of a decision in Louisiana …
Regulations — and executive agencies’ interpretation of those regulations — can make or break companies, and even entire industries. For decades now, the judiciary’s approach to administrative review, found in the landmark 1984 case Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. National Resources Defense Council, largely deferred to government agencies’ interpretation of their governing statutes on the grounds …
The Environmental Protection Agency announced March 20 final national pollution standards applicable to cars, light-duty trucks, and medium-duty vehicles. These standards apply to vehicles manufactured beginning in 2027. The new standards will be phased in on vehicles manufactured until 2032. The EPA estimates the new standards will avoid more than 7 million tons of carbon …
On January 17, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, No. 22-451, an environmental-law dispute concerning fishery management in federal waters. The case reached the court via a petition of four commercial fishing companies challenging a federal fisheries regulation, the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which provides that the National …