Your Guide to Emerging Issues in Environmental Regulation and Litigation.
In their purest form, natural wildfires, most commonly caused by lightning strikes or volcanic activity, are a necessary part of the lifecycle in most ecosystems. They provide a number of important ecological benefits, such as reducing dead vegetation, stimulating new growth, and improving wildlife habitat. Indeed, a variety of plant and animal species depend on …
Microplastics have been detected in human lungs and placentas, stool and blood, and the latest finding: heart tissue. In a pilot study published in Environmental Science & Technology, researchers studied 15 patients, ranging in age from 41 to 75, who underwent heart surgery at the Beijing Anzhen Hospital in China. Through the use of laser-direct …
With COVID diagnoses spiking across the United States this summer, we cannot yet claim that the pandemic is behind us. In fact, we are still experiencing residual medical device and equipment shortages, which has caused medical providers to spend billions on alternative sterile medical products and even implementing rations in some cases. Complicating the issue …
Last week, the California Supreme Court, in a rare unanimous ruling, struck down a Monterey County voter-approved local initiative that would have banned oil and gas drilling and imposed severe restrictions on oil and gas development in the county. In the court’s view, the local ordinance is preempted by state law and was struck down. …
On July 27, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a three sentence order that vacated the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit’s orders staying the construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. The pipeline is being built through Virginia and West Virginia and is being constructed to provide additional natural gas for winter in the South …
Motivated by “the quality and sustainability of drinking-water” due to rising water demand concerns in the United States, as well as “increasing contamination of drinking-water resources, and a growing understanding of potential human-health consequences associated with exposures to contaminants,” the U.S. Geological Survey recently conducted a study on the prevalence of PFAS in tap water. To better …
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced July 25 proposed updates to its Air Emissions Reporting Requirements (AERR), including a proposal to require the reporting of hazardous air pollutants, or “air toxics” (substances known or suspected to cause cancer and other serious health effects). This update seeks to provide the EPA with accessible data allowing it …
No one can dispute that the New York subway system, operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, was a marvel of 20th century engineering. With a total of about 850 miles of track, more than 450 stations in operation, and moving around 6 million people per day, it is no wonder it remains the busiest mass-transit …
In the fall of 2020, when New Yorkers saw photos and videos of orange skies over San Francisco caused by the Bay Area’s infamous fog, combined with heavy smoke from what seemed like non-stop wildfires raging throughout California, it looked like a dystopian movie landscape, or even another planet. Even more surreal, Californians in these …
Carbon tetrachloride (CTC) is a solvent used as a raw material in commercial settings to produce chemicals such as hydrofluoroolefins for refrigerants, aerosol propellants, foam-blowing agents, chlorinated compounds, and agricultural products. Notably, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission banned the use of CTC in consumer products in 1970. Additionally, in 1996, CTC was phased out …