[Podcast] Catching Up on Canadian Environmental Regulation
The Great Green North: A Discussion on Canada’s Environmental Regulations
Recent Actions on Ag Biotech by EPA’s Emerging Technologies Branch
The Trump administration is moving to effectively eliminate a crucial protection in the half-century-old federal Endangered Species Act by redefining a single word: harm. A proposed rule, issued this Wednesday from the U.S....more
On March 4, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling that prohibits the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA” or “the Agency”) from setting qualitative limits based on the condition of the “receiving waters” that...more
When it rains too much in San Francisco, the city's wastewater treatment plant can get overloaded. An overloaded wastewater treatment plant means that a city-operated, EPA-permitted point source in the Pacific Ocean could...more
Senator Irvin of Mountain View has introduced Senate Bill 367 which would repeal the Small Business Revolving Loan Fund for Pollution Control and Prevention Technologies Act (“Act”). The Act is found in Chapter 5,...more
I’ve always taken the position that, no matter how much I disagree with the President, the Senate should confirm his executive branch nominees (nominations to the Judicial Branch are different, since judges don’t work for the...more
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently unveiled its National Strategy to Prevent Plastic Pollution (Plastic Pollution Strategy), a comprehensive document that outlines voluntary measures and regulatory...more
On November 21, 2024, the EPA issued its final National Strategy to Prevent Plastic Pollution, as required by the Save Our Seas 2.0 Act. This comes after the Agency received almost 92,000 comments on its draft strategy. ...more
While still a newly minted lawyer early in 1977, I had the good fortune to land a job with the then brand-new Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management. This coincided with the 1976 election of Jimmy Carter as...more
The Law: California enacted the Responsible Textile Recovery Act of 2024, the first extended producer responsibility law for clothing producers in the United States....more
What Happened - On Monday, October 14, 2024, the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecyle) opened a public comment period on changes to the previously proposed regulations implementing the...more
The extended producer responsibility (“EPR”) programs for packaging that are currently unfolding in several states impose two primary obligations on producers of covered materials—reporting data and paying fees to a producer...more
On July 1, 2024, CalRecycle published an updated list of covered material categories as required by California’s extended producer responsibility (EPR) law. SB 54 was signed into law by Governor Newsom in June 2022 and...more
On April 25, 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) signed four final rules representing multi-media regulation (air, water, waste, climate) for the utility sector. Individually, each rule would have been notable for...more
As we wrap up our week-long celebration of Earth Day with insightful articles focusing on various aspects of plastic pollution, this final article focuses on how the courts are being asked to step into ring and referee the...more
On March 31, Circular Action Alliance (“CAA”), the Producer Responsibility Organization (“PRO”) for California, Colorado, and the only contender for PRO in Oregon, submitted the first draft of its Program Plan (“the Plan”)...more
As discussed in our earlier Client Alerts, California recently passed several laws requiring certain climate-related corporate disclosures, including, for example, regarding emissions and climate-related financial risk. As...more
Recognising the threat of climate change and the importance of sustainable development, Singapore has made a commitment to establishing a robust framework of environmental and climate change laws and regulations – an...more
Earlier this week, New York State Attorney General Letitia James filed suit against PepsiCo. At the core of the case are allegations that PepsiCo.’s widespread use of single-use plastics has created or contributed to a...more
On September 4, 2023, the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution (INCPP) released a draft proposal on the reduction of global plastic pollution. The so-called “Zero Draft” proposes measures to address...more
On September 5, 2023, the Corporate Leaders Group Europe (CLG Europe) published a position paper urging the European Union to cut its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by at least 90% by 2040, and asked EU member states to...more
In the Byzantine complexity of the Clean Air Act (CAA), EPA’s “once in, always in” policy regarding hazardous air pollutants (HAP) has been particularly confounding. And now it’s back in play, through regulatory revisions...more
California lawmakers seek to raise the bar on climate regulation through the California Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act (Senate Bill 253), which would require large public and private companies to disclose their...more
Minnesota has begun enacting substantive rules and standards for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). In May, Minnesota enacted a PFAS statute that defines PFAS, creates a reporting requirement, and bans sale or...more
The UK Climate Change Committee (CCC) recently released its 2023 statutory report, evaluating the UK’s progress towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions and meeting carbon reduction targets. This report, mandated by the...more
Earlier this month, a team of researchers out of the UK, Canada, and New Zealand published a first-of-its-kind study in the peer-reviewed Journal of Hazardous Material Advances, examining the microplastics pollution potential...more