A California Superior Court judge ruled last week that Sonoma County must do more to ensure responsible groundwater pumping under the state’s Public Trust Doctrine, which holds that rivers, creeks, and other waterways are...more
The Environmental Protection Agency intends to issue a rule updating its Clean Air Act emission standards for new and existing municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills to cut methane and other harmful landfill gas emissions....more
Good morning! This is Akin’s newsletter on climate change policy and regulatory developments, providing information on major climate policy headlines from the past week and forthcoming climate-related events and hearings...more
In response to critics who said that proposed new statewide water conservation rules — aimed at cutting urban water use even in years when California is not in a drought — were too complicated and costly, the State Water...more
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) issued a December 12th news release indicating it had entered into a Consent Agreement with Hamm Inc. (“HI”) addressing alleged violations of the Clean Air Act. ...more
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) issued an October 2023 report titled: Quantifying Methane Emissions from Landfilled Food Waste (“Report”)...more
Fourteen environmental organizations submitted a June 22nd Petition to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) asking that it strengthen the Clean Air Act Section 111 New Source Performance Standards...more
The Environmental Integrity Project (“EIP”) issued a report titled: Trashing the Climate: Methane from Municipal Landfills (“Report”) - EIP states it examined data from the United States Environmental Protection...more
In 2015, California’s former governor Edmund Brown Jr. set methane emissions-reduction targets for the state. Senate Bill 1383 requires that California reduce organic waste disposal 75 percent by the year 2025. Although most...more
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) approved in a December 15th letter an unmanned aerial system (“UAS” [i.e., a drone]) as an alternative method to determine compliance with the surface methane...more
The United States Composting Council (“USCC”) recently issued a document titled: PFAS Positioning and Guidance Statement (“Statement”)...more
The Supreme Court of New Mexico (“Court”) addressed in a December 16th opinion the legality of the 2018 Annual Renewable Energy Plan (the “2018 Plan”) between El Paso Electric Company (“El Paso Electric”), a public utility...more
Methane gas has been the subject of yo-yoing regulation—and regulatory roll-backs—over the past few years. Presidential candidate Joe Biden has already vowed to take immediate action on climate change, including “requiring...more
Save the planet and feed the children? No, these are not the aspirations of a beauty contestant but the objective of legislation that was passed in the Golden State. In 2016, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law SB 1383....more
Last year, we reported on EPA’s decision to allow the expiration of a moratorium on the 2016 Obama Climate Action Plan rule and guidelines seeking to reduce landfill methane emissions (“Methane Rule and Guidelines”)....more
New Source Review (“NSR”) remains a focus of enforcement for EPA. Between last year and now, EPA finalized eight settlements with manufacturers and one with a utility, asserting NSR violations for allegedly not obtaining a...more
Municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills receive non-hazardous waste from residential properties, commercial businesses, and institutions. When MSW is placed in a lined landfill and covered, it decomposes and emits a gas into...more
In early January 2018, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) decided to halt previous proposals to stay methane rules for new and existing landfills. The Obama Administration’s EPA issued the final New Source...more
The Missouri Court of Appeals (Eastern District) addressed in a December 19th opinion a coverage issue involving a Premises Pollution Liability Policy (“ PPL policy”). See Hazelwood Logistics Center, LLC v. Illinois Union...more
EPA recently announced a 90-day stay for reconsideration of rules governing performance standards and emissions from Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Landfills. The final rules issued in July 2016 established new source...more
On June 1, 2017, President Trump announced that the United States will withdraw from the Paris climate agreement (“Paris Agreement”). The Paris Agreement was signed by 195 countries in December of 2015. The goal of the...more
Section 111 of the Clean Air Act (CAA) requires EPA to issue New Source Performance Standards (NSPSs) for certain source categories of air pollutants. These NSPSs set threshold limits on emissions of certain pollutants...more
Time to Pay More: EPA Increases Maximum Civil Penalties - Remember the days when the maximum civil penalty EPA could assess for a violation of environmental law was $25,000 per day? Those days disappeared 26 years ago...more
On July 14, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued its latest set of methane regulations as part of the Obama Administration’s Climate Action Plan: Strategy to Reduce Methane Emissions. The Administration issued two...more
EPA has issued a proposed rule and a supplemental proposal to a July 14, 2015 proposed rule that are designed to achieve additional reductions of landfill gas (LFG) and its components, including methane, by lowering the...more