In recent years, environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and local governments have increasingly sued gas, oil, and energy companies, challenging their historic messaging on climate change, plastic recycling, and...more
Back in the 1970s, US Congress passed laws that allow private parties to bring citizen suits to enforce federal environmental laws. While those statutes have not significantly been amended, changes in both administrative law...more
9/27/2024
/ Chevron Deference ,
Citizen Suits ,
Corner Post Inc v Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ,
Disclosure ,
Enforcement ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Environmental Violations ,
Exxon Mobil ,
Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo ,
NGOs ,
Public-Private Entities ,
RCRA ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
While environmental justice (EJ) concerns continued to drive policymaking in early 2024, EJ efforts increasingly faced headwinds coming from various and sometimes unexpected directions. Below, we will summarize recent...more
4/17/2024
/ City of Chicago ,
Clean Air Act ,
Environmental Justice ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Final Rules ,
Human Rights ,
Louisiana ,
NGOs ,
Petrochemicals ,
Plastics ,
Settlement ,
State Implementation Plans (SIPs)
A first-of-its-kind environmental justice (EJ) lawsuit filed by a group of Louisiana churches and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) was dismissed this week.
The court’s decision finding the plaintiffs’ claims to be...more
Everyone loves recycling. However, when it comes to plastic, questions about how recycling occurs and whether it can meaningfully occur generate a fair amount of controversy.
...more
A recent Supreme Court of the State of Hawaii decision permitted climate-related claims against major petroleum and gas companies to proceed toward trial.
The decision in City and County of Honolulu v. Sunoco LP allows...more
11/16/2023
/ Business Litigation ,
Clean Air Act ,
Climate Change ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Greenwashing ,
Infrastructure ,
Misleading Statements ,
NGOs ,
Oil & Gas ,
Petroleum ,
Power Purchase Agreements ,
Public Utility ,
SCOTUS
While increased enforcement resulting from increased federal focus on environmental justice (EJ) issues poses risk to many businesses, how (and perhaps whether) the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) assesses and...more
The “Major Questions Doctrine” (MQD) has been the breakout star of the last two terms at the US Supreme Court. Earlier this month, the Fourth Circuit used MQD in upholding the dismissal of a nongovernmental organization’s...more
8/18/2023
/ Chevron Deference ,
Clean Water Act ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Fishing Industry ,
Loan Forgiveness ,
Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo ,
National Marine Fisheries Service ,
NGOs ,
Pollution Control ,
SCOTUS ,
Student Loans ,
Water Pollution
Addressing environmental justice (EJ) issues has been a primary concern for the Biden Administration. Recent developments — one in Chicago and one in Louisiana — show different ways local and state regulators have reacted to...more
In recent years, “sustainability” has gone from being a niche product approaching, in some quarters, a religion. Few would argue with the proposition that issues like climate- and carbon-neutrality and recyclability have...more
Louisiana has been at the center of the past year’s eruption of environmental-justice related enforcement activities.
The complaint in Inclusive Louisiana et al. v. St. James Parish et al., found here, is tied to three...more
Americans have been “recycling” since colonial times. However, it wasn’t until the 1960s that Americans began viewing recycling ― often provided alongside rubbish removal ― a more formal solution to problems posed by consumer...more
These days, environmental policy is often established indirectly. While “Schoolhouse Rock” may have taught some of us “How a Bill Becomes a Law,” its insights are less relevant in the current era where things like purportedly...more
1/20/2023
/ Biden Administration ,
CEQ ,
Clean Air Act ,
Clean Water Act ,
Environmental Justice ,
Environmental Policies ,
NEPA ,
New Guidance ,
New Regulations ,
NGOs ,
Superfund
What will happen in the environmental and energy space in 2023? The last year saw transformative changes in the environmental and energy space in the form of historic spending through the federal Inflation Reduction Act, a...more
12/15/2022
/ CERCLA ,
Clean Water Act ,
Climate Change ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Justice ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
General Services Administration (GSA) ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Hazardous Substances ,
Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) ,
NGOs ,
PFAS ,
Popular ,
Sackett ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
US environmental policy changes tend to occur at a glacial pace, particularly at the federal level. Frustrated with the pace of change, environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and state regulators are increasingly...more
12/12/2022
/ Compliance ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Greenwashing ,
NGOs ,
Petrochemicals ,
Plastics ,
Sustainability ,
Transparency
The first two years of the Biden Administration have resulted in a seismic shift in terminology in the environmental space. Environmental justice (EJ), formerly viewed as a theoretical goal, has become unifying federal driver...more
Standing is a major issue in nearly all environmental citizen suit cases. A split panel of the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a district court’s award of a $14.25 million Clean Air Act (CAA) penalty against a...more
9/12/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Clean Air Act ,
Environmental Justice ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Exxon Mobil ,
NGOs ,
Penalties ,
Pollution Control ,
SCOTUS ,
Settlement ,
Spokeo v Robins ,
Standing
Consent decrees play a major role in environmental litigation. This week, Maine People’s Alliance v. Holtrachem Manufacturing Company, one of the nation’s longest-running cases under the Resource Conservation and Recovery...more
8/12/2022
/ Appeals ,
CERCLA ,
Consent Decrees ,
Contamination ,
Environmental Litigation ,
Environmental Remediation Costs ,
Future Claims ,
Mercury ,
NGOs ,
Site Remediation ,
Toxic Chemicals ,
Unmanned Aircraft Systems ,
Water Pollution
Enforcement under the major federal environmental statutes is often - but not always - filed by state or federal regulators. However, the statutes generally give private parties avenues to pursue litigation when regulators ―...more