The Legal and Practical Challenges of California's Advanced Clean Fleets Regulation
Nota Bene Episode 101: Catching up with Global Climate Regulation with Nico van Aelstyn
[WEBINAR] Update on the California Environmental Quality Act: What’s New for 2018
On September 4, 2024, the New Mexico Environment Department’s Air Quality Bureau (AQB) updated its Civil Penalty Policy, making several key changes to its assessment of civil penalties and administrative compliance costs in...more
The Biden-Harris Administration recently issued a suite of new rules aimed at addressing water and air quality, reducing methane emissions, protecting environmental justice communities, and accelerating the nation’s...more
Less than a month after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published environmental operational standards and greenhouse gas emission regulations for owners and operators of heavy-duty vehicles, including major freight...more
Environmental regulations, including those under the California Air Resources Board’s (“CARB”) jurisdiction, present a complex compliance challenge for vehicle fleet managers and operations departments across the country....more
What are the top legal and practical concerns stemming from a key California climate-change initative, its Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) rule that went into effect in October 2023? This initiative by the California Air...more
After Held v. Montana was decided, and I read Peter Vetere’s blog post, I’ve been thinking about the Massachusetts Constitution. Would Massachusetts’ youth have similar success arguing for a guaranteed safe, clean...more
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced July 25 proposed updates to its Air Emissions Reporting Requirements (AERR), including a proposal to require the reporting of hazardous air pollutants, or “air toxics”...more
California has been pushing hard recently to lose its status as the second-largest contributor of the nation’s greenhouse gases (still comfortably behind Texas.) ...more
Need a refresher on key developments in 2022 to prepare you for what’s next in 2023? Here’s a rundown of some high-profile happenings, along with some you might have missed....more
Late last month, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in Midwest Ozone Group v. EPA, the latest challenge to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR). The Good...more
California becomes first state to test drinking water for microplastics - San Francisco Chronicle – September 7 - On Wednesday, California became the first state to begin requiring water agencies to test for microplastics,...more
Many have characterized West Virginia v. EPA as a decision depriving EPA of an important tool to address climate change under the Clean Air Act. The decision is better viewed as steering EPA away from a flawed regulatory...more
The Draft 2022 Scoping Plan Update takes an all-of-the-above approach to decarbonize California. On May 10, 2022, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) released its Draft 2022 Scoping Plan Update for public review...more
On March 29, 2022, the Government of Canada released the first of a series of emissions reduction plans, entitled "2030 Emissions Reduction Plan – Canada's Next Steps for Clean Air and a Strong Economy" (the ERP) under the...more
Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published its Notice of Decision in the Federal Register to rescind EPA’s 2019 withdrawal of California’s waiver of preemption under Section 209 of the Clean Air Act (CAA)...more
The goal of the Clean Air Act’s visibility program is to achieve natural visibility conditions by 2064 in federal Class I areas (basically, national parks). States must show that they are making “reasonable progress” towards...more
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently issued a proposed rule under the Clean Act intended to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and air pollutants from crude oil and natural gas operations...more
EPA rescinds previous administration’s guidance on Clean Water Act permit requirements - Water & Wastes Digest – September 21 - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is rescinding its guidance document: “Applying...more
Bay Area air quality regulators adopt stringent refinery particulate emissions standard - Reuters – July 21 - The governing board of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (District) on Wednesday adopted...more
South Coast Air Quality Management District Adopts Indirect Source Rule for Warehouses - Earlier this month, the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) adopted Rule 2305 or the Warehouse Indirect Source Rule...more
The South Coast Air Quality Management District (“SCAQMD”) is pursuing a new rule to regulate distribution warehouses. The SCAQMD’s focus is not on emissions generated by the warehouses or their equipment. Rather, its focus...more
Anyone with even a passing interest in environmental law has seen numerous articles over the past four years noting the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back this or that environmental regulation. ACOEL’s blog contains...more
One thing that is clear from the 2020 election: the Senate will remain closely divided, with slim majority control to be determined by the two January Senate runoff races in Georgia. President Elect Biden has announced the...more
The Earth’s climate is changing. With unprecedented fires in California and the State’s litigation with the federal government, the Brazilian rainforest fires, and the aircraft industry’s inability to curb aircraft emissions,...more
As industrial facilities go, distribution warehouses are clean, non-polluting operations. They generally do not operate industrial furnaces, boilers, compressors, pumps, tanks or other major stationary sources of air...more