The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) has announced its latest priority for Clean Air Act enforcement: stationary engines. In an enforcement alert, EPA states that it has been finding numerous violations of Clean...more
The Justice Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and the California Resources Board announced a joint settlement totaling roughly $1.5 billion with Daimler AG and its US subsidiary Mercedes Benz to resolve...more
CEP Magazine (May 2020) - The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency are battling over a new auto emissions rule. The interagency dispute has delayed action by the United...more
Last week, the EPA announced two significant settlements for violations of the Clean Air Act relating to emissions of volatile organic compounds (“VOCs”) from upstream oil and gas production facilities. These enforcement...more
One of the areas where my thinking has evolved in the compliance arena is around the area of reputational damage. Of course commentators, such as Andrea Bonime-Blanc, have written and spoken about preventing damage to a...more
On September 29, 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA” or the “Agency”) promulgated its final Petroleum Refinery Sector Risk and Technology Review (“RTR”) and New Source Performance Standards (“NSPS”) rule...more
On October 1, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a prepublication version of a final rule establishing a new National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for ozone. The final rule lowers the primary and secondary...more
Many Americans listened last week to the admissions by the now former President of Volkswagen that the company had been “dishonest” and had cheated on the U.S. emissions tests. How was this happening at the world’s #1...more
The Volkswagen scandal will be studied for years. One of many themes from the Volkswagen scandal will rest on the complete absence of any commitment to corporate governance. Volkswagen’s weird corporate structure (it is owned...more
Vermont Volkswagen car owners headed by Charlotte resident Robert Turnau have sued Volkswagen companies in Germany and the United States over damages they suffered as a result of the company’s falsification of emissions...more
Ed. Note-The VW scandal is clearly much broader than simply corporate lying about environmental compliance. It is about an entire corporate culture that engaged in, tolerated or consciously disregarded the illegal behavior....more
Things are seriously bad when one of the world’s most respected business focused publications, the Financial Times (FT), asks if the auto “industry faces ‘Libor moment’”? Yet that was a headline yesterday in the lead article...more
The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) issuance of a notice of violation last week to Volkswagen AG, Audi AG, and Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. (collectively Volkswagen) appears to have further validated EPA’s and...more
NEW REGULATORY DEVELOPMENTS - Federal - Final 2014 Effluent Guidelines Program Plan and 2014 Annual Effluent Guidelines Review Report EPA is announcing the availability of its Final 2014 Effluent Guidelines...more