The Legal and Practical Challenges of California's Advanced Clean Fleets Regulation
Nota Bene Episode 101: Catching up with Global Climate Regulation with Nico van Aelstyn
Schoenbrod: SCOTUS Ruling Helps EPA Deal With a "Stupid Statute"
A new study from the North Carolina State University’s GenX Exposure Study has detected airborne “forever chemicals” in everyday household dust in communities along the Cape Fear River Basin, North Carolina area. These...more
In the latest edition of the PFAS Primer Quarterly Update, our roundup of regulatory, litigation, and scientific actions involving PFAS, the EPA delays PFAS reporting, a compostable case won’t degrade, and Illinois keeps an...more
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will lead an investigation into the Tijuana-U.S. cross-border sewage crisis, measuring the potential health impacts on people who live and work near where millions of gallons of...more
On November 29, Ohio Attorney General (AG) Dave Yost and Governor Mark DeWine announced a proposed $110 million settlement with Du Pont De Nemours and Co. and The Chemours Company over alleged chemical contamination from...more
Twenty-two attorneys general, led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, urged a federal court this Wednesday to reject a proposed $10.3 billion settlement over contamination of U.S. public drinking water systems with...more
A court in the Eastern District of Washington recently reversed its prior decision concluding that the deposition of aerial emissions from a smokestack in Canada could support a claim for arranger liability under Washington’s...more
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Land and Emergency Management (OLEM) oversees policy and guidance for the EPA’s hazard response and waste programs. In October 2022, OLEM released its Environmental Justice...more
California becomes first state to test drinking water for microplastics - San Francisco Chronicle – September 7 - On Wednesday, California became the first state to begin requiring water agencies to test for microplastics,...more
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) released on June 6 proposed new rules that would implement parts of the Environmental Justice Law, N.J.S.A. 13:1D-157, requiring certain industrial facilities to...more
In his latest report, the sixth in a series of thematic reports, Professor David Boyd, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment celebrates a turning point in the evolution of human rights: the October 8,...more
A few considerations practitioners should keep in mind when dealing with contamination involving per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination. The PFAS Action Act of 2021 passed in the House and was received in...more
California unveils proposed measure to ban new gasoline-fueled cars Bullet The Mercury News - April 13 The California Air Resources Board (CARB) on Wednesday unveiled a far-reaching proposal requiring a ramp-up in sales of...more
On April 8, 2022, U.S. EPA added the industrial solvent 1-bromopropane (1-BP) to its list of CERCLA hazardous substances; this listing was triggered by U.S. EPA’s decision to add 1-BP to the Clean Air Act’s list of hazardous...more
On November 23, 2021, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) Director of the Office of Compliance requested that TCEQ approve a proposed rulemaking intended to respond to a series of industrial events occurring over...more
On Wednesday July 21, 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the PFAS Action Act of 2021. The bill, H.R. 2467, passed 241-183 demonstrating its bipartisan support, with twenty-three Republicans joining their...more
On August 3, 2018, a grand jury in Houston, Texas, indicted chemical manufacturer Arkema North America, Inc. (Arkema), its CEO and a manager at the manufacturer’s Crosby, Texas, plant on criminal charges for the “reckless...more
California Air Districts Begin Task of Implementing the AB 617 Best Available Retrofit Control Technology Requirements - AB 617, a bill adopted by the California Legislature in 2017 to address criteria air pollutants and...more
On 22 June 2017, Chinese legislators released draft proposals to combat soil pollution in China at a bimonthly session of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress. The legislation complements the State...more
Do air emissions of hazardous substances create a cleanup liability under the Superfund? In the closely watched case of Pakootas, et al. v. Teck Cominco Metals, Ltd., the Ninth Circuit said, “no,” becoming the highest court...more
In a case of first impression, this week, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the owner of a Canadian smelter was not liable as a person who “arranged for disposal” of hazardous substances when it emitted those...more
Yesterday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued in the long-running Pakootas v. Teck Cominco Metals, Ltd. litigation another important decision further defining the scope of liability under the federal Comprehensive...more
Yesterday the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published a proposed rule in the Federal Register which would add a vapor intrusion component to the Hazard Ranking System, the system EPA uses to evaluate sites for...more
The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, 42 U.S.C. § 9601 et seq. (“CERCLA”) imposes fairly broad liability on potentially responsible parties (“PRPs”) to pay for the investigation and...more
Environmental and Policy Focus:Governor Brown issues executive order requiring statewide mandatory water restrictions - Allen Matkins - Apr 3: Responding to severely depleted water supplies and a record low snowpack at...more
The California Building Industry Association (CBIA) laid out its case that CEQA contains no general directive requiring analysis of the existing environment’s impacts on a future project in a 50-page opening brief filed in...more