Your Guide to Emerging Issues in Environmental Regulation and Litigation.
While the Trump administration has ushered in an era of deregulation on the environmental front, including proposals to repeal Obama era standards governing hydraulic fracturing on government land, the Delaware River Basin Commission (the DRBC) recently made headway in the other direction. On November 30, 2017, the DRBC approved a resolution that could lead to …
A novel approach to finding a plaintiff meets a quick end. In September 2017, an environmental group filed a lawsuit in Colorado federal court. That lawsuit sought to force the State of Colorado to “protect and defend” the Colorado River ecosystem. While that action itself is not original in any sense, the named plaintiff was. …
There is a number few have heard of underlying many environmental regulations that are directly related to climate change — the Social Cost of Carbon (SCC). As noted in a recent article in The Economist, climate economists refer to the SCC as “the most important number you’ve never heard of.” Essentially, the SCC attempts to …
Power companies in North Carolina and Virginia are currently battling with their neighbors over the best method to store coal ash waste. Coal ash, also referred to as coal combustion residuals, is the resulting waste following the burning of coal in coal-fired power plants. The ash is often disposed of in surface impoundments, landfills, and nearby …
A few weeks ago, we reported on New Jersey’s adoption of the lowest Maximum Contaminant Limits (14 parts per trillion) for PFOAs (perfluorooctanoic acid) in the nation. And now we come to you with the latest development in the realm of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs). This past week, New Jersey scientists urged the state …
On Tuesday, December 5, 2017, 14 states — including California, New York, and Illinois — plus the District of Columbia filed suit in federal court in the Northern District of California against Scott Pruitt and the EPA. The states are trying to force EPA to announce a decision on whether all areas of the country …
Glyphosate is sprayed on more than 200 types of crops across four million acres in California, making it the most widely used herbicide in the state, according to the California Department of Pesticide Regulation. Globally, it’s available in hundreds of generic formulations from numerous companies, and accounts for 25 percent of all pesticide use worldwide. …
Back in June, Environmental Law Monitor reported that GenX, the trade name for a class of perfluorinated alkylated substances (PFAS), had been detected in North Carolina’s Cape Fear River, a main supply source for the City of Wilmington’s drinking water, and that the US EPA and other state agencies had traced the PFAS upstream to …
We wanted to take a moment and wish all of our subscribers and their families a very Happy Thanksgiving. Environmental Law Monitor will return next Thursday (11/30) with new posts. Once again, Happy Thanksgiving!
The U.S. EPA will conduct a public hearing in Charleston, West Virginia on November 28 and 29, 2017 that concerns the proposed repeal of the Clean Power Plan (CPP). The CPP, as passed under the Obama Administration in 2015, was designed to combat global warming by reducing carbon dioxide emitted by power plants. Under the …