The onslaught of environmental justice-related reforms has continued in early 2023. Below, we will outline four issues to keep an eye on in the coming quarter....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
Executive branch priorities are clearly set out in agency budget requests. While the amount budgeted generally changes when Congress has its say, the original request provides unique insight into how agencies perceive what...more
3/22/2023
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Budgets ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Clean Air Act ,
Climate Change ,
Compliance ,
Drinking Water ,
Environmental Justice ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) ,
Infrastructure ,
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) ,
SCOTUS ,
West Virginia v EPA
The war on plastics and petrochemicals has ramped up in 2023. The first two months of the year have seen the petrochemical supply chain under stress....more
No industrial company wants to find itself on the morning news tied to a chemical spill or train derailment. Events like those can transform even the most highly regarded company into a movie villain and give rise to...more
A new set of environmental policies embraced by the Biden Administration ― environmental justice (EJ) ― may soon spur litigation in the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) space....more
2/21/2023
/ Biden Administration ,
Business Operations ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Enforcement ,
Environmental Justice ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Greenwashing ,
Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) ,
Investors ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Risk Management ,
Sustainability
What buzzwords define the environmental space in the past two years? Both “ESG” and “environmental justice” (EJ) are strong contenders. This post outlines how these concepts relate and provides guidance as to how companies...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
1/20/2023
/ Biden Administration ,
CEQ ,
Clean Air Act ,
Clean Water Act ,
Environmental Justice ,
Environmental Policies ,
NEPA ,
New Guidance ,
New Regulations ,
NGOs ,
Superfund
“Environmental justice” (EJ) continues as the primary leitmotif of Biden Administration environmental policy in the first weeks of 2023.
Below, we unpack two recently announced EJ efforts: a grant program for groups in...more
1/18/2023
/ Biden Administration ,
Clean Air Act ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Environmental Justice ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Grants ,
NEPA ,
New Guidance ,
Pesticides ,
Toxic Chemicals ,
Waste Management ,
Water
How the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will factor environmental justice (EJ) principles into permitting decisions remained largely an open question throughout 2022. In the waning days of the year, EPA’s Office of...more
On New Year’s Eve, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed New York’s “Cumulative Impacts” bill into law, making New York the second state in the nation to require assessment of “cumulative impacts” affecting certain...more
1/4/2023
/ Air Pollution ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Environmental Justice ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Hazardous Waste ,
New York ,
Noise Control Ordinances ,
Permits ,
Pollution Control ,
SEQRA ,
Solid Waste
Businesses work to operate in compliance with relevant laws and generally work to avoid — if possible — scrutiny from regulatory agencies. For many businesses, including those that devote considerable resources to meeting...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
12/15/2022
/ CERCLA ,
Clean Water Act ,
Climate Change ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Justice ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
General Services Administration (GSA) ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Hazardous Substances ,
Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) ,
NGOs ,
PFAS ,
Popular ,
Sackett ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was passed to help citizens stay informed about government activities. While improving the availability of information under FOIA has been a long-term goal for the executive branch,...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
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...more
In a recent US Environmental Protection Agency (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...more
10/26/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
CERCLA ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Clean Air Act ,
Clean Water Act ,
Department of Environmental Quality ,
Environmental Justice ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Investigations ,
Louisiana ,
NAAQS ,
Regulatory Oversight
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...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
9/12/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Clean Air Act ,
Environmental Justice ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Exxon Mobil ,
NGOs ,
Penalties ,
Pollution Control ,
SCOTUS ,
Settlement ,
Spokeo v Robins ,
Standing
The Biden Administration has long been clear that it believes environmental justice (EJ) issues should be at the forefront of federal environmental law. With that in mind, US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other...more
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...more
8/23/2022
/ Air Pollution ,
Biden Administration ,
Clean Air Act ,
Clean Energy ,
Climate Change ,
Environmental Justice ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
HUD ,
Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) ,
Investment ,
Pollution Control ,
Superfund
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...more
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 - to address...more
7/27/2022
/ CERCLA ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Clean Air Act ,
Clean Water Act ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Environmental Justice ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Funding ,
HUD ,
Title VI
The US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ) and External Civil Rights Compliance Office issued draft guidance (Draft Guidance) on June 2, 2022, outlining how EPA intends to integrate...more
On May 5, 2022, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced its new environmental justice (EJ) strategy, which has been a priority to the Biden Administration.
While the strategy is comprehensive and involves many federal...more