The New Cold War: Risk, Sanctions, Compliance Episode 24: “Elephants and the Mafia: Combatting Criminal Wildlife Trafficking”
While environmental justice (EJ) concerns continued to drive policymaking in early 2024, EJ efforts increasingly faced headwinds coming from various and sometimes unexpected directions. Below, we will summarize recent...more
Louisiana remains at the forefront of environmental justice activity. In just four days from January 19 to January 23, 2024, two courts in Louisiana offered interpretations to environmental justice efforts in the State of...more
A first-of-its-kind environmental justice (EJ) lawsuit filed by a group of Louisiana churches and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) was dismissed this week. The court’s decision finding the plaintiffs’ claims to be...more
While increased enforcement resulting from increased federal focus on environmental justice (EJ) issues poses risk to many businesses, how (and perhaps whether) the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) assesses and...more
Effective March 1, 2023, the Chinese government abruptly lifted travel restrictions imposed to combat the COVID pandemic. In August I visited China with one of my students, my first visit in more than four years. Five of...more
Addressing environmental justice (EJ) issues has been a primary concern for the Biden Administration. Recent developments — one in Chicago and one in Louisiana — show different ways local and state regulators have reacted to...more
Since taking office two years ago, the Biden Administration has emphasized efforts to incorporate environmental justice considerations into federal agency permitting, funding and financial support decision-making....more
President Biden issued an Executive Order on April 21, 2023 titled “Revitalizing Our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All” (the “EO”). The EO continues the Administration’s emphasis on environmental justice by...more
Louisiana has been at the center of the past year’s eruption of environmental-justice related enforcement activities. The complaint in Inclusive Louisiana et al. v. St. James Parish et al., found here, is tied to three...more
These days, environmental policy is often established indirectly. While “Schoolhouse Rock” may have taught some of us “How a Bill Becomes a Law,” its insights are less relevant in the current era where things like purportedly...more
What will happen in the environmental and energy space in 2023? The last year saw transformative changes in the environmental and energy space in the form of historic spending through the federal Inflation Reduction Act, a...more
The first two years of the Biden Administration have resulted in a seismic shift in terminology in the environmental space. Environmental justice (EJ), formerly viewed as a theoretical goal, has become unifying federal driver...more
The EPA’s External Rights Compliance Office recently released Interim Environmental Justice and Civil Rights in Permitting Frequently Asked Questions (“the FAQ”). Stressing “that it is time to use the full extent of its...more
Standing is a major issue in nearly all environmental citizen suit cases. A split panel of the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a district court’s award of a $14.25 million Clean Air Act (CAA) penalty against a...more
Recently, the Flemish Government published a proposal amending the functioning of inter alia the Council for Permit Disputes (a regional administrative court), which also has procedural ramifications for access to justice. ...more