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Next Up for Massachusetts Building Emissions Reductions: Tackling the Clean Heat Challenge

This week, the Massachusetts Commission on Clean Heat released its final report. The report seeks to establish a framework for a long-term reduction in emissions from heating fuels, to align with the Commonwealth’s emissions...more

DOER’s Updated Stretch Code – A Breakdown of the Changes and the New Opt-in Net Zero “Specialized Code”

Massachusetts will soon see significant updates to the energy codes that govern the construction and alteration of buildings throughout the Commonwealth. As required by the 2021 climate bill, the Massachusetts Department of...more

DOER Issues an Updated Stretch Code – Are Net-Zero Energy Buildings Really Coming Soon?

Massachusetts will soon see significant updates to the energy codes that govern the construction and alteration of buildings throughout the Commonwealth.  As required by the 2021 climate bill, the Massachusetts Department of...more

Massachusetts to Require Disclosure of Energy Usage from Large Buildings

Lost amid the more high profile items in Massachusetts’ recently enacted Act Driving Clean Energy and Offshore Wind is a requirement that the Department of Energy Resources establish a program requiring large buildings across...more

Coming soon to Massachusetts cities and towns: all electric buildings

As we’ve discussed before, multiple cities and towns in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts have tried to ban fossil fuel hookups for new buildings by zoning or other ordinance over the past few years. But in July 2020, the...more

Massachusetts Attorney General Strikes Down First Municipal Fossil Fuel Ban

Just over a year ago, the city of Berkeley, California, became the first City in the United States to ban natural gas hookups in new buildings. The trend of municipalities enacting fossil fuel bans, driven by a desire to...more

We’ll Always Have RGGI: Paris or no Paris, New England Continues to Lead on Greenhouse Gas Emission Reductions

August 23, 2017, Massachusetts and the eight other New England and Mid-Atlantic states that participate in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative announced a proposed plan for the continued implementation of RGGI (the...more

MassDEP Issues Final Pile Field Determination: Get Fixin’!

Back in September and February, we wrote about MassDEP’s Proposed Interpretation of Chapter 91 regulations, which attempted to provide guidance to the regulated community on the conditions under which a historic pile field...more

Six Years in the Making, New Ch. 91 Flexibility Washes Ashore

Last month, MassDEP and the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management released long-awaited revisions to the regulations governing waterfront development in Massachusetts (the Chapter 91 regulations, the Designated Port...more

CLF Takes Its MHP Fight Across the Fort Point Channel

Last week we wrote about the Conservation Law Foundation filing suit against EOEEA Secretary Beaton and DEP Commissioner Suuberg for actions associated with the approval of an amendment to the South Boston Waterfront District...more

CLF Questions Secretary’s Chapter 91 Discretion

Last week the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) announced it has filed suit against EOEEA Secretary Beaton and DEP Commissioner Suuberg for actions associated with the approval of an amendment to the South Boston Waterfront...more

The Latest on the DEP’s “Pile Policy”: If the Tides Rise, Do Structures Still “Exist”?

Back in September, we wrote about MassDEP’s Proposed Interpretation of Chapter 91 regulations, which attempted to provide guidance to the regulated community on the conditions under which a historic pile field can contribute...more

2/17/2017  /  Inland Waterways , MassDEP

Trump Signs Executive Order Expediting Environmental Permitting for High Priority Infrastructure

In one of the first acts of his presidency, Donald Trump signed an Executive Order entitled “Expediting Environmental Reviews and Approvals for High Priority Infrastructure Projects”, with a stated goal of streamlining...more

MassDEP: The Rising Tide May Steal Your Development Rights

Does a pile field exist if it’s covered at high tide? MassDEP seems to think not. Through the Commonwealth’s Chapter 91 program, MassDEP regulates what can be built over tidelands. In last week’s Environmental...more

MassDEP and CZM Propose Changes to Chapter 91 Regulations

MassDEP and the Commonwealth’s office of Coastal Zone Management recently proposed draft changes to the Designated Port Area and Facility of Public Accommodation regulations under the Chapter 91 program. Comments are due by...more

EPA Releases Long-Awaited MS4 Permit for Massachusetts

As announced in the Federal Register this week, EPA finally released the General Permit for small Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems in Massachusetts (say that three times fast!) This permit has been in the works for...more

About those calls from MassDEP…

Last month, we wrote about MassDEP’s trichloroethylene (TCE) site reevaluation initiative. MassDEP has begun the process of screening sites previously closed under the MCP to look for sites where TCE might exceed the new...more

MassDEP Releases Long-Awaited LNAPL Guidance

MassDEP recently published its final guidance for Light Nonaqueous Phase Liquids (LNAPL). The document provides guidance on investigating and assessing the presence and migration of LNAPL at disposal sights regulated under...more

EPA Proposes to Add Vapor Intrusion Pathway Assessment to Superfund Listing System

Last week, we wrote about an audit that MassDEP is conducting of previously closed sites to look for high concentrations of TCE in soils and groundwater. The intent of the audit is to address potential vapor intrusion. The...more

If MassDEP calls…

At a recent meeting of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection’s Waste Site Cleanup Advisory Committee, MassDEP announced that it will soon begin the process of contacting owners of previously closed sites...more

AIG Bows Out of the Pollution Legal Liability Market

On January 26, 2016, insurance giant AIG announced a major restructuring designed to make it a “more profitable and focused insurer.” Apparently as a result of these efforts to streamline and slim down, AIG has begun...more

MassDEP Releases Its Draft Vapor Intrusion Guidance

MassDEP has recently released for public comment draft Guidance on Vapor Intrusion. The proposed guidance would replace MassDEP’s December 2011 Interim Final Vapor Intrusion Guidance, which saw minor revisions in the spring...more

Data Breach Prevention and Response: Avoiding Potential Pitfalls and Implementing Best Practices to Protect Your Company

In This Presentation: - Overview of data breach landscape - Data breach response ..Technical best practices ..Legal best practices - Data breach prevention ..Technical best practices ..Legal best...more

EOEEA Releases Draft Ocean Management Plan Update: Now with Fees

The Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EOEEA) recently released for public review and comment a draft update to the Ocean Management Plan for the Commonwealth. The Oceans Act, signed by...more

MassDEP Proposes Amendments to CO2 Budget Trading Regs to Implement RGGI Program Changes

On Friday, MassDEP released for public review and comment draft amendments to the CO2 Budget Trading Program regulations. These amendments are designed to implement the changes to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative...more

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