In Short - The Situation: The U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ" or "Department") and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") recently announced the creation of a regional, cross-agency taskforce, targeting...more
On July 20, 2023, the U.S. Senate confirmed the long-awaited appointment of David Uhlmann as the new Assistant Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA”) Enforcement and Compliance Division. Mr. Uhlmann...more
On May 11, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the launch of its Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) Environmental Crimes Task Force. This new task force will focus specifically on combating...more
The United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”) issued a November 28th news release stating that Joshua M. Franklin has pleaded guilty to a negligent violation of the Clean Water Act. The charge is stated to stem from an...more
The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon (“Department of Justice [“DOJ”]) issued an August 24th news release stating that Hydro Extrusion USA (“Hydro”) had been charged with negligent endangerment under...more
In recent days, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has made a series of announcements aimed at addressing environmental justice concerns and enforcement practices. The actions taken by DOJ include the establishment of the...more
The Department of Justice’s Environmental Crimes Section Chief, Deborah Harris, recently discussed environmental crime enforcement during an American Bar Association virtual conference. Ms. Harris told attendees that...more
On September 15, 2021, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works held a hearing on several U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) nominees, including Amanda Howe, nominated for Assistant Administrator for...more
The acting head of the EPA’s enforcement office issued a memorandum on June 21, 2021 (the “Memorandum”), that outlines actions to advance the EPA’s environmental justice (“EJ”) goals in criminal enforcement matters....more
The Biden Administration has a number of enforcement priorities. While not listed as a primary objective, the Justice Department and the EPA can be expected to increase criminal enforcement of environmental laws....more
In December of 2015 the Department of Justice (“DOJ”)and the Department of Labor jointly announced an expansion of the “Worker Endangerment Initiative” to address violations of worker safety and environmental laws. In...more
The news has been full of stories and articles concerning Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR), also referred to as coal ash. CCR became a hot topic in 2008 when a coal ash pond at a utility plant in Tennessee spilled more than 5...more
On September 15, 2015, we wrote an OSHA Bulletin that summarized a memorandum issued by Deputy Attorney General Yates. You can read the Bulletin here. On December 17, 2015, Yates issued another memorandum that will impact all...more
On December 17, 2015, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates issued a memorandum to all 93 U.S. Attorneys urging federal prosecutors to work with the Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resource Division (ENRD) to...more