Environmental Law Advisor

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 major court decision involving hot-button topics.

US environmental policy changes tend to occur at a glacial pace, particularly at the federal level. Frustrated with the pace of change, environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and state regulators are increasingly alleging “ESG” and sustainability-focused claims.

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was passed to help citizens stay informed about government activities.

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 touching permitting, rulemaking, and civil-rights investigations.

“Administrative deference” is a key component to the modern regulatory state. The “Chevron doctrine,” i.e., the concept that the courts should defer to relevant agencies’ interpretations of ambiguous statutes they are tasked to administer, has been viewed as a key underpinning.

A new federal proposal may reduce the burden and costs for wind energy projects and power lines to ensure compliance with federal wildlife protections.

Securing environmental permits is often big part of operating a business. How the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recent focus on environmental justice (EJ) issues might affect that permitting remains something of an open question.

In a recent US EPA letter issued to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) and the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH), the Biden Administration deploys its plans to use the “whole of government” to address what it believes are long-standing civil concerns.

As we move toward two full years of the Biden Administration, we can see the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) environmental justice (EJ) efforts move from the creation of new offices and guidance materials toward seeing EJ-focused changes occurring in EPA’s efforts.

On October 14, 2022, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed changes to its New Source Review (NSR) regulations that would expand the number of projects that trigger NSR permitting at existing facilities by requiring that all major stationary sources consider fugitive emissions.

On Aug. 30, in Environment Texas Citizen Lobby Inc. v. ExxonMobil Corp., a split panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas’ $14.25 million Clean Air Act penalty against a petroleum company that had been found liable for

The first Monday of October means the Supreme Court begins to hear cases for the new term. As we promised at the end of last term, below we summarize cases the Court could address, including issues involving the federal Clean Water Act; standing and the appropriateness of executive action.

Citizen suits begin with private parties sending “notice letters” to potential defendants apprising them that, if a specified action isn’t done within a certain period, litigation will be filed. A primary purpose of these letters is to allow parties to fix issues outlined in the letters.

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 petroleum company which had been found liable for “thousands.”

The Biden Administration has long been clear that it believes environmental justice (EJ) issues should be at the forefront of federal environmental law.

On August 26, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a pre-publication version of its proposal to designate two of the most widely used per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act.

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) reflects the Biden Administration’s attention to issues of environmental justice and environmental equity. The IRA, directly and indirectly, invests in environmentally overburdened communities.

An important step in the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Strategic Roadmap for Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) was completed on August 12 when the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced the completion of its review of an EPA proposal to designate two PFAS as hazardous.

Consent decrees play a major role in environmental litigation. This week, Maine People’s Alliance v. Holtrachem Manufacturing Company, one of the nation’s longest-running cases under the RCRA citizen suit provisions, has essentially ended with a Maine district court’s entry of a consent decree.

US Senate Democrats Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin reached a compromise on the fiscal year 2022 budget reconciliation that includes $369 billion in new spending to spur clean energy and technology over the next decade. The bump in spending would be off-set by corporate tax changes.

Enforcement under the major federal environmental statutes is often - but not always - filed by state or federal regulators.

Environmental justice (EJ) issues continue to be at the forefront of the Biden Administration’s regulatory agenda, with promises to deploy non-environmental statutes - most notably, federal civil rights laws.

While the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has sought to return Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs) to the quiver of tools, it can use to resolve environmental claims, some stakeholders, including the US Chamber of Commerce, Republican lawmakers, and Republican state Attorney’s General have fil

One of the US Supreme Court’s final opinions this term addressed US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) authority to regulate greenhouse gases (GHGs) under the federal Clean Air Act (CAA).

The concept of “administrative deference” is a key component to the modern regulatory state. An important aspect of administrative deference is the “Chevron doctrine,” i.e. the concept that the courts should defer to relevant agencies’ interpretations of ambiguous statutes.