As part of the Biden Administration's overall strategy of enhancing environmental justice, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) jointly announced last week the return (with modifications)...more
Although the toxicity of lead has been known for a century, the United States still lags in controlling lead in drinking water. Lead exposure has been known to cause brain damage, with impacts to intelligence and impulse...more
On November 29, 2021, we posted that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) had recently reinstated the Yates memo, a 2015 enforcement policy memorandum that had been rescinded by the Trump Administration. The Yates memo...more
Criminal enforcement of environmental laws is a rarity, despite relatively light evidentiary intent standards. Blatant and unquestionably deliberate violations—the "secret pipe" type—are usually the only ones we see...more
In a previous blog, we discussed the potential boom for hydrogen should it find a role in meeting the Biden Administration's goal of zero carbon energy usage by 2050. On April 23, 2021, the Department of Energy (DOE)...more
Expect big expansion in the use of clean hydrogen energy—that has been a periodic mantra in the climate change press for years. While commercial scale development continues to face serious technical and cost barriers, there...more
During the prior administration, it was fairly simple to anticipate the path the federal government would take in the area of environmental regulation: 1) If a regulation had been proposed or implemented by the Obama...more
On December 23, 2020, the federal government published its inflation-adjusted civil penalties for a variety of environmental statutes, including the Clean Air Act (CAA) and the Clean Water Act (CWA). Those $25,000 per day or...more
On October 13, 2020, President Trump issued an Executive Order directing the creation of a sub-group with the Environmental Protection Agency to address infrastructure issues for America's water systems. Other agencies...more
Recent court decisions have stymied the Trump Administration’s determination to accelerate permit approvals for oil and gas infrastructure projects, a policy focus since it came into office. Its tools have essentially been...more
On January 8, 2020, the Trump Administration proposed streamlining the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations for evaluation of the environmental impacts of major projects, in part by removing the existing...more
Desalination will be essential to meet the water needs of many areas around the world as an alternative to overextended or depleted fresh water sources....more
The Trump Administration, which reversed course from the Obama Administration on the CAFE rules for automobile manufacturers and announced it would freeze the fleet mileage standards at 2020 levels, apparently will not...more
On July 25, 2019, four major domestic and foreign automakers announced an agreement had been reached with the State of California on a voluntary framework reducing emissions from autos through, inter alia, increased mileage...more
Many in the Trump Administration and on the federal bench have long railed against "Chevron deference" as the devil’s tool to expand the federal administrative bureaucracy at the expense of the legislature....more
To the surprise of many, on June 26, a unanimous Supreme Court in Kisor v. Wilkie allowed continued, though limited, deference to an agency’s interpretation of its own ambiguous regulatory language. ...more
6/28/2019
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Veterans' Benefits
This post is not about repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act, which has been botched since the Act was first passed, despite Republican control of the Presidency and both the House and Senate for the last two...more
In the continuing a series of Trump deregulation failures, a federal judge in the Northern District of California rejected in harsh terms an effort by the Department of the Interior (DOI) to replace the Valuation Rule for...more
As reported in this space, in November 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court remanded to the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit a determination by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service on critical habitat for the dusky gopher frog. ...more
Lessons In Persistence for Us All -
Recent actions by the New Hampshire House of Representatives provide a variety of lessons about the value of persistence, both in the political process and in life....more
Federal courts often rely on “Chevron deference” in upholding regulations issued pursuant to vague congressional authorization. This doctrine dictates that where the statutory language is unclear, a court will defer to a...more
One of life’s eternal questions: where do all those golf balls go that are hit into a water hazard? If it was a pond, I knew the answer from my misspent youth – kids sneaking onto the premises at night fished them out of...more
In LAJIM LLC v. General Electric, in both the district court and on appeal, the plaintiff both won and lost. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit readily affirmed the federal district court’s grant of summary...more
In a unanimous decision (with Justice Kavanaugh not participating), the Supreme Court on November 27, 2018, remanded a controversial Endangered Species Act (ESA) decision for further consideration by the Fifth Circuit Court...more
International efforts to reduce marine pollution are bearing fruit, according to a press release issued by INTERPOL on November 13. But it’s a big problem that won’t go away soon. Is it really that bad? Yes. Is it just a...more