New Executive Orders and Proclamation -
On April 8, 2025, President Donald J. Trump issued three significant executive orders (“EOs”) and a fourth proclamation consistent with his pledge to “Unleash American Energy.” These...more
Climate change-related litigation has been increasing in the United States for the past several years. Not only have the actual number of these types of cases increased, but the claims raised in these cases have been...more
After seven years, three presidential administrations, and two appearances before the Supreme Court, the Obama Administration’s “Clean Power Plan” (“CPP”)—a Clean Air Act regulation designed to limit carbon emissions from...more
Stakeholders in the U.S. infrastructure industry should note that ongoing litigation and new court decisions issued in the first half of 2020 are reshaping the development of energy projects....more
Two recent cases have the potential to dramatically alter the state of permitting and enforcement under the federal Clean Water Act (“CWA”) with far reaching implications to energy infrastructure project proponents and the...more
Twenty-two years after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Bestfoods, a government contractor—PPG Industries, Inc. (“PPG”)—comes face to face with one of the most important tenets of that court’s decision: operator liability under...more
Notwithstanding that the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (more commonly known as “Superfund”) has been around for 40 years, and the fact that numerous cases have made their way to the...more
4/28/2020
/ Approval Requirements ,
Atlantic Richfield Co v Christian ,
CERCLA ,
Clean-Up Costs ,
Contaminated Properties ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Jurisdiction ,
Land Owners ,
MT Supreme Court ,
Nuisance ,
Potentially Responsible Party (PRP) ,
Reaffirmation ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
Site Remediation ,
State Law Claims ,
Strict Liability ,
Trespass
The saga for regulating mercury and air toxics from coal- and oil-fired power plants continues with a final rule promulgated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) on April 16, 2020. EPA initially determined that...more
The surge in COVID-19 patients has led to a sharp rise in medical waste that could carry the novel coronavirus. One common question raised by the COVID-19 outbreak is how to properly manage and dispose of...more
On April 10, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) released its latest coronavirus COVID-19 Guidance addressing cleanups and emergency response actions that are being conducted under various environmental laws,...more
Due to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) announced a Policy that will effectively relax civil enforcement in certain circumstances. The EPA recognizes that worker shortages...more
The novel coronavirus (“COVID-19”) pandemic has caused significant personal and business disruptions to virtually every aspect of life. Businesses are being challenged by the financial markets, supply chain threats,...more
As the world’s attention turns increasingly (and almost exclusively) to the spread of COVID-19 (the coronavirus), we want to take this opportunity to highlight two important federal agency responses from the U.S. Occupational...more
At the outset of 2019, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf set a goal for Pennsylvania to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Now, Governor Wolf plans to achieve that goal by taking the bold step to establish a carbon...more
Last month, the Supreme Court in Kisor v. Wilkie, 139 S.Ct. 2400 (2019) upheld what is known in administrative law as Auer deference: the age-old principle that a court should defer to an agency when the agency is...more
7/10/2019
/ Administrative Agencies ,
Ambiguous ,
Appeals ,
Auer Deference ,
Kisor v Wilkie ,
Reasonable Interpretations ,
Remand ,
SCOTUS ,
Stare Decisis ,
Vacated ,
Veterans' Benefits
Introduction -
Right now, cases involving climate change are being heavily litigated in courts across the United States. Hundreds of climate change-related cases have been filed in both federal and state courts, where...more
The Republican majority of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or “Commission”) has drawn a clear distinction with how and when the Commission will analyze upstream and downstream greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions...more
The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court recently ruled that a challenge to Sunoco Pipeline L.P.’s (“Sunoco”) Mariner East Project under Article 1, Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution (the “Environmental Rights Amendment”...more
Citing distinctions between hydraulic fracturing and conventional gas drilling, the Pennsylvania Superior Court held on April 2, 2018, in Briggs v. Southwestern Energy Production Company that the rule of capture does not...more
In a move that has excited the renewable energy and electric storage industries, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) last month voted to remove barriers to the participation of electric storage resources in the...more
In American Petroleum Institute (“API”) v. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”), the D.C. Circuit upheld, severed, and vacated portions of a 2015 EPA final rule, Definition of SolidWaste (the “Final Rule”). As explained...more
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) weighed in rapidly and decisively on the Sabal Trail (a/k/a Southeast Market Pipelines or “SMP Project”) case that the D.C. Circuit remanded to it on August 22, 2017. As...more