Business Better Podcast Episode: An Update on Environmental Justice Under the Biden Administration
On-Demand Webinar | Planning and Funding Climate Resilient California Coastal Infrastructure
Natural Resource Damages & Environmental Justice
Drinking Water on Tap: Money, Morality, and More with Tracy Mehan from the American Water Works Association - Reflections on Water Podcast
Williams Mullen Manufacturing Edge: Environmental Enforcement in the Current Regulatory Climate
On-Demand Webinar | Linear Infrastructure Redux: Adapting Your Projects to Meet the New Regulatory Climate
On May 1, 2024, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) finalized a rule to undo most of the remaining 2020 Trump Administration changes to the federal environmental review process under the National...more
Based on immediate reactions to the long-awaited final "Phase II" NEPA regulations, one might think that the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) substantially altered long-standing federal environmental review practice....more
The Massachusetts Commission on Energy Infrastructure Siting and Permitting published its report making recommendations to Governor Maura Healey on clean energy infrastructure siting and permitting reform. Governor Healey...more
Massachusetts has become the first state to require analysis of cumulative impacts for certain air quality permits in or near communities with environmental justice (EJ) populations. On March 29, 2024, the Massachusetts...more
Last week, an interesting lawsuit was filed in Boston with a distinctly and perhaps ironic environmental justice flavor. A non-profit, the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, along with fifteen Boston residents, brought suit to...more
The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) issued a proposed rulemaking on 31 July 2023 to implement Congress’s updates to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) recently enacted in the Fiscal Responsibility...more
The energy transition and increased public focus on environmental issues have strained the existing regulatory regime including the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). NEPA directs agencies to conduct environmental...more
The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) recently published a proposed rule that makes substantial revisions to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations, implementing the amendments directed by...more
Energy industry watchers are waiting to see whether environmental or industry groups will appeal a pair of decisions issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on April 21, 2023, that addressed the impacts of...more
In 2020, New Jersey enacted a first-of-its-kind environmental justice statute, the Environmental Justice Law (EJ Law). The EJ Law requires that permit applicants for certain water, waste, and air facilities located, wholly or...more
On remand from the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“D.C. Circuit”), FERC reaffirmed that Rio Grande LNG, LLC’s proposed liquified natural gas (“LNG”) terminal project (“Rio Grande LNG...more
What Happened: New York State Governor Kathy Hochul signed the “Cumulative Impacts Bill” into law. The law expands existing environmental review procedures under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA), the state...more
On the final day of 2022, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed into law the Cumulative Impacts Bill (CIB), which both houses of New York State’s legislature had passed eight months earlier in the year (language here: S.8830 and...more
The public’s attention to environmental justice has refocused the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on cumulative assessment of risk and impacts. Concordantly, EPA recently finalized its Fiscal Year 2022–2026...more
On April 19, 2022, the Biden administration finalized a new rule (“Final Rule”) rolling back the Trump administration’s 2020 changes limiting the scope of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The Final Rule...more
Updated March 28, 2022 - As we previously reported, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in February issued two new policy statements likely to have far-reaching implications for the agency’s approval of...more
On February 18, 2022, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) issued two important policy statements by a 3-2 vote related to the construction of natural gas facilities....more
The procedures associated with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), particularly Environmental Impact Statements (EISs), are undergoing change. On one hand, the Executive Branch under the Biden administration,...more
The Biden Administration’s “whole of government” approach to advancing environmental justice (EJ) continues apace, with agencies and courts pursuing focused enforcement and environmental review strategies that could affect...more
Historically, environmental issues have been front and center for major project development throughout the world. But for projects in the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) increased focus on the...more
In Plaquemines Parish et al. v. Chevron et al., the U. S. Fifth Circuit has ruled on whether 42 suits brought by six parishes and the Louisiana Attorney General against a number of oil companies belongs in federal court or...more
On August 3, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals held that FERC could not avoid use of the social cost of carbon in assessing the impacts of natural gas projects by arguing that “there is no universally accepted...more
Nearly 200 comments were filed in response to FERC’s February 18, 2021 Notice of Inquiry (NOI) that sought new information and perspectives on whether it should revise its policy statement on the certification of new...more
The Biden Administration has acknowledged the racist history of the U.S. interstate highway system and its ongoing negative impacts on many Black neighborhoods. Presidential Memorandum on Redressing Our Nation’s and the...more
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) recently invited public comment on environmental justice matters it may consider in future natural gas pipeline certificate proceedings, reopening a three-year-old notice and...more