Focus
“A course correction”: U.S. Supreme Court reinforces agency deference and narrows the scope of environmental effects that agencies must consider under NEPA
Allen Matkins – May 30
On May 29, 2025, the Supreme Court held that the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) — which requires federal agencies to analyze the environmental impacts of projects that they perform, fund, or approve — does not require those agencies to consider the effects of “other future or geographically separate projects that may be built (or expanded) as a result of or in the wake of the immediate project under consideration.” Please see our latest alert for a discussion of this significant decision and its implications for developers and federal agencies.
News
Regulators seek to phase out gas-powered appliances in Southern California
Los Angeles Times - June 4
The South Coast Air Quality Management District, or SCAQMD, which covers all of Orange County and large swaths of Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties, is scheduled to vote today on two proposed regulations designed to limit emissions of nitrogen oxides, or NOx — the key pollutants that form smog. If approved, the SCAQMD’s Proposed Amended Rules 1111 and 1121 would set zero-emission sales targets for manufacturers, distributors, and installers of the appliances, such as gas furnaces and water heaters, that would be phased in beginning in 2027.
LA County files preliminary injunction motion against Chiquita Canyon Landfill
Los Angeles Daily News – May 29
Los Angeles County filed a motion last Thursday for a preliminary injunction in its ongoing lawsuit against the private operators of the Chiquita Canyon Landfill in a bid to ensure the health of residents in Castaic, Val Verde, and other nearby communities impacted by odors emanating from the site. The injunction seeks court intervention to mandate relief measures, including relocation assistance and home-hardening for the most affected residents.
Valero to pay $270,000 for chemical safety violations at Wilmington Refinery
Daily Breeze – June 4
Valero will pay more than $270,000 in fines as part of a settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on June 4. The settlement, with Ultramar, Inc., an energy company that merged with Valero in 2001, resulted from a June 2022 inspection of Valero’s Wilmington Refinery, at which EPA identified numerous alleged violations of the Risk Management Program Rule under the Clean Air Act, including underestimating the distance that dangerous concentrations of chemicals could spread in a worst-case scenario release, according to an agency news release. Valero’s Wilmington Refinery has long faced criticisms over its use of modified hydrofluoric acid — a highly toxic chemical that rapidly expands upon release and can travel at lethal concentrations up to two miles, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
Colorado River’s hidden, below-ground reservoir is quickly shrinking, researchers say
The Colorado Sun – June 5
The Colorado River Basin’s hidden, below-ground reservoir — which spans parts of Colorado and six other states — has lost about 13 trillion gallons of water over the last two decades and is shrinking faster than it has in the past, according to researchers at Arizona State University. Groundwater stored in the cracks in rock and spaces between soil and sand provides water to 40 million people around the West. Policymakers, water managers, and others often focus on the basin’s shrinking above-ground supplies — even more so since two reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, fell to historic lows around 2022. Meanwhile underground, more than a Lake Mead-worth of water has disappeared, according to a study published May 27 in the American Geophysical Union’s peer-reviewed research journal, Advancing Earth and Space Sciences.
*This article may require a subscription to read.
[View source.]
