On January 29, 2021, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued updated guidance aimed at helping employers implement COVID-19 Prevention Programs to better identify workplace risks that could lead to...more
2/3/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Executive Orders ,
Infectious Diseases ,
New Guidance ,
OSHA ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Workplace Hazards ,
Workplace Safety
Fulfilling one of his central campaign promises, President Biden signed a wide-ranging Executive Order last week addressing climate change through energy, infrastructure, national security, foreign affairs, and social justice...more
2/2/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Carbon Emissions ,
Clean Air Act ,
Climate Change ,
Domestic Policy ,
Environmental Policies ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Agency Taskforce ,
Foreign Policy ,
Fossil Fuel ,
Infrastructure ,
Paris Agreement ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Renewable Energy
Hours after his inauguration on January 20, 2021, President Biden signed 17 executive actions covering a wide range of issues, including several focused on discrimination and racial justice, immigration, and environmental...more
2/1/2021
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Biden Administration ,
Bostock v Clayton County Georgia ,
Census ,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Climate Change ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
DACA ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Educational Institutions ,
Environmental Policies ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Contractors ,
Gender Identity ,
Immigration Enforcement ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Immigration Reform ,
Muslims ,
National Environmental Policies ,
Presidential Proclamations ,
Race Discrimination ,
Race Relations ,
Sexual Stereotyping ,
Title VII ,
Trump Administration ,
US-Mexico Border Wall
On January 21, 2021, President Biden issued an Executive Order on Protecting Worker Health and Safety (Order) directing the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to take “swift action to reduce the risk that...more
On his first day in office, President Joe Biden issued an Executive Order titled “Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis.” The Executive Order directs the Environment...more
1/22/2021
/ Administrative Review ,
Biden Administration ,
Bureau of Land Management ,
Carbon Emissions ,
Clean Power Plan ,
Clean Water Act ,
Climate Change ,
Congressional Review Act ,
Environmental Policies ,
Executive Orders ,
Methane ,
National Environmental Policies ,
NEPA ,
Obama Administration ,
Oil & Gas ,
Supplemental Environmental Project (SEP) Policy ,
Trump Administration ,
Waters of the United States
With the Biden Administration set to take over, COVID-19 priorities are expected to change. To assist with identifying and anticipating the Administration’s priorities, we outline below the Administration’s key initiatives....more
1/19/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
FEMA ,
Government Investigations ,
Public Private Partnerships (P3s) ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Relief Measures ,
Small Business ,
State and Local Government ,
USAID ,
Vaccinations ,
World Health Organization
On December 27, President Donald Trump signed a $1.4 trillion appropriations package funding the government through September 2021 and a $900 billion fiscal stimulus law for coronavirus aid. Media attention has focused on the...more
12/31/2020
/ Biden Administration ,
Carbon Capture and Sequestration ,
CARES Act ,
Climate Change ,
Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Energy (DOE) ,
Energy Sector ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
HFC Emissions ,
Investment Tax Credits ,
Popular ,
Production Tax Credit ,
Renewable Energy ,
Renewable Energy Incentives ,
Solar Energy ,
Wind Power ,
Zero-Emission Vehicles
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently published draft guidance on how to apply the “functional equivalent” test created by the Supreme Court in County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund, 140 S. Ct. 1462 (2020). The...more
12/17/2020
/ Clean Water Act ,
Direct Discharge ,
Discharge of Pollutants ,
Draft Guidance ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Functional Equivalent ,
Groundwater ,
Hawaii Wildlife Fund v County of Maui ,
Navigable Waters ,
Point Sources ,
SCOTUS
As the 2020 presidential campaign made clear, President-elect Biden plans to usher in a sharp shift in policy priorities across the federal government. We anticipate significant changes in the management of federal public...more
11/16/2020
/ Arctic National Wildlife Refuge ,
Biden Administration ,
Bureau of Land Management ,
Climate Change ,
Congressional Review Act ,
Conservation ,
Department of the Interior ,
National Monuments ,
NEPA ,
Net Zero ,
Oil & Gas ,
Outer Continental Shelf ,
Public Land ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Repeal
Over the weekend, major news outlets announced that former Vice President Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States. Biden and his running mate, Vice Predident-elect Kamala Harris, pledged throughout the...more
11/10/2020
/ Biden Administration ,
Bureau of Land Management ,
Clean Energy ,
Clean Power Plan ,
Climate Change ,
Congressional Review Act ,
Deregulation ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Green Infrastructure ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Infrastructure ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Methane ,
Paris Agreement ,
Presidential Elections ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Sustainable Projects ,
Trump Administration
Now that the results of a tumultuous presidential election appear clear, attention shifts to what to expect during President-elect Joe Biden’s first term. It is fair to say that a Biden White House will sharply contrast with...more
11/10/2020
/ Biden Administration ,
Clean Air Act ,
Clean Power Plan ,
Clean Water Act ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
SAFE ,
US Army Corps of Engineers ,
Waters of the United States
Wildfire season is upon the American West, with fires blazing in California, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Oregon, and Washington. With a somewhat delayed onset this year, wildfire season came roaring in with a...more
On June 18, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued new COVID-19 related guidance to assist businesses deemed “non-essential” as they reopen their workplaces. The...more
In recent weeks, many businesses have resumed or expanded operations to varying degrees as states and local jurisdictions have issued reopening orders. That means many “non-essential” employees have been or soon will be...more
On May 7, 2020, Governor Gavin Newsom announced in a press conference that the state was moving into Stage 2 of a four-stage plan for reopening California that he had put forth only last week. He characterized this transition...more
Six weeks ago, California issued the nation’s first statewide shelter-in-place order in response to the growing COVID-19 pandemic. Although nearly every other state eventually followed suit in taking significant measures to...more
In response to the lifting or relaxing of shelter in place orders in a number of states, many businesses plan to resume certain operations during the pendency of the COVID-19 pandemic. The health, safety, and well-being of...more
Adding to the many regulatory initiatives undertaken to aid the nation’s COVID-19 response and provide enforcement relief to the regulated community, on April 10, 2020, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued...more
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a number of rapid-fire legislative, executive, and regulatory responses in the U.S. States, counties, and cities have issued shelter-in-place and other emergency orders, causing certain...more
On March 18, 2020, we published an alert informing employers that, due to the severity of the COVID-19 outbreak, they could lawfully take employees’ body temperatures as a condition of their entering the workplace. At that...more
After days of intense negotiation, last night the Senate passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, a $2 trillion stimulus package to respond to the economic fallout from the coronavirus (COVID-19)...more
In the wake of the outbreak of a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), California state and local authorities have been at the forefront of issuing executive orders to institute measures to slow the spread of the virus....more
The outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has affected nearly all individuals and businesses in the United States. With over 350,000 cases confirmed worldwide, including over 30,000 cases in the United States, federal,...more
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (“COVID-19”) is affecting U.S. businesses in a variety of ways and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Impacts include telework and employee absenteeism, changes in consumer demands,...more