Until today someone appealing a decision by a local conservation commission under both the Massachusetts wetlands protection act and a local wetland protection bylaw had to appeal the decision under the Massachusetts law to...more
News this week that massive ecologically sensitive intake heads are being installed for a new nuclear plant being constructed in Somerset, England. The 21st century plant also includes new "core catcher" technology to...more
Just a few weeks ago the conservative majority of our nation's Supreme Court said that it is up to Congress to authorize what it described as a "seemingly sensible solution" to the fact that our planet is quite literally...more
Massachusetts's Supreme Judicial Court has agreed with a Superior Court Judge that the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection was not authorized by the Massachusetts Legislature to defer to certain municipal...more
When Emily Norton, the always ambitious Executive Director of the Charles River Watershed Association, first mentioned the possibility of removing the South Natick Dam a few years ago I thought she was biting off more than...more
One of the most surprising comments I received on my piece last week about the United States Supreme Court getting out of the environmental law making business was that the Court's opinion in West Virginia v. EPA was a...more
Ducks Unlimited estimates that the United States has lost approximately 16.8 million acres of wetlands since the mid-1950s. Although the rate of wetland filling has slowed since the passage of the Federal Clean Water Act,...more
Just before the July 4th holiday, two Judges on a Ninth Circuit panel reversed their earlier conclusion that conveying contaminated groundwater can give rise to RCRA liability for the "transportation" of a "solid waste". The...more
For most of my time on this planet, and all of my more than thirty years as an environmental lawyer, the nation's highest court has, with very few exceptions, blessed the United States Environmental Protection Agency's broad...more
Much has already been written about the Supreme Court's decision yesterday to tie EPA's hands in its effort to mitigate the GHG fueled climate catastrophe we face. As we prepare to celebrate the birth of our nation, I'd like...more
Lara Beaven of Inside EPA reports that the House Appropriations Committee intends to give EPA every dollar it has requested to implement its ambitious and wide-ranging plan for addressing the ubiquitous "forever" chemicals...more
EPA has announced that the second part of its eighth attempt to define the reach of the Clean Water Act will be delayed until November of 2023. At the same time EPA announced it will move forward with finalizing part one of...more
Today we learned EPA is deviating from its less than one year old PFAS road map by issuing new health advisory levels for certain PFAS ahead of the finalization of EPA's PFAS Toxicity Assessment and the establishment of...more
Surprising no one, lawyers for EPA and the US Army Corps of Engineers have implored the Supreme Court to affirm the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals' application of Justice Kennedy's "significant nexus" test for determining the...more
Regardless of your perspective on the respective roles of Congress, the President and the Courts in creating federal environmental law, an essay by Sam Sankar of EarthJustice is well worth your time. ...more
A little over a month ago EPA's Science Advisory Board decided "EPA could benefit from SAB review of the science supporting [EPA's] proposed definition of Waters of the United States.” As many of you know, EPA's proposal is...more
Yesterday the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs announced the awarding of almost half a million dollars in grants by the Massachusetts Environmental Trust.
As EEA's press release reports,...more
The Boston Globe is reporting on a lawsuit by the ACLU and my law firm, Mintz, against the US Customs and Immigration Service, and other departments of the United States government, relating to the Afghans the President...more
In the mid-1990s the Massachusetts Attorney General, Scott Harshbarger, made national news by suing tobacco manufacturers for, among other things, the monumental health care costs borne by the Commonwealth resulting from...more
Kudos to David Abel of the Boston Globe for a thorough and balanced report on the dire state of the coastal waters of Cape Cod and what might be done to improve it. The problem is that too much of the Cape uses septic...more
Inside EPA reports that EPA has been looking at "techniques and procedures" to apply CERCLA, also known as the Superfund statute, differently to "folks who are not responsible for causing" PFAS releases even though those...more
Law 360 reports that Brenda Mallory, the Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, was in the Senate yesterday telling members of the Committee on Environment and Public Works about the Biden Administration's...more
On the same day that Maine's highest court was pondering whether 25 percent of Maine's registered voters will successfully prevent hydropower from Canada from reaching New England, E&E published this prediction of...more
This week many eyes are focused on Maine's Supreme Judicial Court which will hear argument on whether Maine voters can effectively cancel Federal and State approvals of the New England Clean Energy Connect project. This...more
I'm shocked by the news this morning that a respected Massachusetts Congressman and several others are petitioning President Biden to pardon Steve Donziger who was found by a United States District Court and a United States...more