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
[WEBINAR] Update on the California Environmental Quality Act: What’s New for 2018
On February 13, 2025, the Second District Court of Appeal (Div. 7) filed its 71-page published opinion affirming the trial court’s judgment rejecting CEQA safety hazard and cumulative impacts analysis challenges – as well as...more
What’s Happening with MEPA Right Now (And Why You Should Care) - If you need a permit from a Montana state agency, you have a project on state land, or you need the state to take any kind of action to complete your...more
In its recent decision in Hilltop Group Inc. v. County of San Diego, California’s Fourth District Court of Appeal issued a number of holdings that resulted in a strong ruling in support of streamlined environmental review for...more
Earlier this month, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals vacated most of EPA’s startup, shutdown, and malfunction SIP Call. The Court’s rationale boils down to EPA’s failure to make a predicate finding that the SIP call...more
In a lengthy opinion tackling several of CEQA’s hot topics, a court of appeal has rejected the EIR for the Martis Valley West project, finding its Lake Tahoe water quality analysis, GHG and traffic mitigation measures, and...more
On January 9, 2020, the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest (“ACLIPI”), on behalf of several individuals, filed with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (“Court”) a Petition for Review (“Petition”) of the United...more
Ninth Circuit Upholds U.S. EPA Waiver to CARB Regarding “Non-Road” Diesel Engine Regulations - On February 10, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied a challenge to the U.S. Environmental Protection...more
On remand from the California Supreme Court’s decision in Sierra Club v. County of Fresno, 6 Cal.5th 502 (2018) (“Friant Ranch I”), a court of appeal has held that CEQA requires full decertification – not partial...more
The United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit (“Court”) addressed in a May 29th decision a challenge to a Clean Air Act (“Act”) Title V Permit issued to an ExxonMobil Baytown, Texas Olefin plant (“Plant”). See...more
A court of appeal has upheld an air district’s EIR for an oil refinery modernization project. Communities for a Better Environment v. South Coast Air Quality Management District, 47 Cal. App. 5th 588 (2020)...more
On Tuesday, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals vacated EPA’s “Close-Out Rule,” which basically concluded that upwind states contributing to exceedances of the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for ozone in downwind...more
Last Friday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that EPA violated the Clean Air Act in failing to impose deadlines on upwind states violating the CAA’s Good Neighbor provisions. The Court concluded that, where downwind...more
California Targets Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Ride-Hailing Companies - At a February 22, 2019 workshop, the California Air Resources Board (“CARB”) unveiled its planned “Clean Miles Standard” that will require...more
A Summary of Published Appellate Opinions Under the California Environmental Quality Act - The California Supreme Court issued its only CEQA opinion of 2018 at the end of the year. In Sierra Club v. County of Fresno, the...more
CEQA Case Report: Understanding the Judicial Landscape for Development - In a published opinion issued December 24, 2018, Sierra Club v. County of Fresno, Case No. S219783, the California Supreme Court determined that an...more
In a long-awaited decision, on December 24, 2018 the California Supreme Court in Sierra Club v. County of Fresno (S219783) affirmed, in part, and reversed, in part, the Fifth District Court of Appeal’s decision concerning a...more
CEQA Case Report: Understanding the Judicial Landscape for Development - In an unpublished opinion issued July 10, 2018, Sierra Club v. County of Kern, Case No. F071133, the California Court of Appeal reversed the trial...more
CEQA Case Report: Understanding the Judicial Landscape for Development - In an unpublished opinion issued May 18, 2018, Responsible Development for Water Tank Hill v. County of San Mateo, Case No. A150883, the California...more
In a March 2018 decision, the First Appellate District examined several CEQA issues pertinent to petroleum refining and hazardous materials transport. In Rodeo Citizens Association v. County of Contra Costa, the appeals court...more
Rejecting most challenges to the environmental impact report for a new railyard near the Port of Los Angeles, a court of appeal nevertheless held that the EIR must be decertified because it did not adequately address air...more
On December 8, 2017, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously rejected two challenges to the 20-mile South Mountain Freeway Project in Phoenix, Arizona. The decision is the latest in a series of court decisions...more
The status of a controversial rule establishing more stringent ambient air quality standards for ozone—promulgated by former President Barack Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—remains unclear following a series of...more
On May 25, 2017, the First Appellate District published a modified version of its unpublished March 23, 2017 opinion, holding that the Mendocino County Air Quality Management District’s (“MCAQMD”) issuance of an “Authority to...more
In a 46-page opinion filed February 14 and ordered published on March 15, 2017, the Fourth District Court of Appeal rejected numerous CEQA challenges to Riverside County’s approval of an EIR for Specific Plan 380, a 200-acre...more
California's Fourth District Court of Appeal has provided useful guidance on processing requirements for environmental review documents prepared under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) when project modifications...more