News & Analysis as of July 24, 2025

Clean Air Act

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The Clean Water Act is a United States federal statute enacted in 1972 to reduce levels of toxic substances in the nation's water supply and to prevent high levels of new contamination. The CWA seeks to accomplish its stated goals by preventing point and nonpoint pollution sources, assisting wastewater treatment facilities and maintaining wetlands. less -

Top 3 Supreme Court Environmental and Administrative Trends of 2025

ArentFox Schiff on 7/18/2025

Within this term, the US Supreme Court’s major environmental and administrative focus was on statutory text in its environmental and administrative decisions....more

Supreme Court’s Cert Denials Pave Way for Surge in Environmental Citizen Suits

McGlinchey Stafford on 7/18/2025

In a significant victory for environmental advocacy groups, the Supreme Court’s refusal on June 30, 2025 to grant certiorari in two pivotal cases (Port of Tacoma, et al. v. Puget Soundkeeper Alliance and ExxonMobil Corp., et...more

Supreme Court Declines to Limit Environmental Citizen Suits

Holland & Hart LLP on 7/11/2025

On June 30, 2025, the Supreme Court denied industry group petitions to review and reverse two cases—one out of the Fifth Circuit and the other out of the Ninth Circuit—that could have significantly restricted the ability of...more

Superfund May Be Fundamentally Broken, But That Doesn't Mean that It Can't Be Improved

Foley Hoag LLP - Environmental Law on 7/3/2025

Because the risks posed by superfund sites pale in comparison to the risks posed by air pollution and broader water pollution issues regulated under the Clean Water Act, I have been and remain deeply skeptical of the Trump...more

Course Correction: Supreme Court Steers Toward Greater Predictability in NEPA Reviews

K&L Gates LLP on 6/11/2025

On 29 May 2025, the Supreme Court unanimously declared that a “course correction” was needed for cases under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), holding that a law originally meant to be a procedural check to inform...more

California Environmental Law & Policy Update 6.6.25

Allen Matkins on 6/9/2025

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...more

Air/Wastewater Enforcement/Citizen Suit Action: Conservation Law Foundation and Quincy, Massachusetts Bio-based Chemical...

Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard,... on 5/6/2025

The Conservation Law Foundation (“CLF”) and Twin Rivers Technologies (“TRT”) entered into a March 30th Consent Decree (“CD”) addressing alleged violations of the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. See No....more

Trump EPA: Interplay of Deregulation and NGO Citizen Suits

McGlinchey Stafford on 2/20/2025

President Donald Trump’s second term has already proven to be an extension of his first-term deregulatory agenda at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Given historical trends, such deregulation will likely prompt...more

Waters of the United States and Winston Churchill

Mintz on 3/1/2023

Sir Winston Churchill famously said "those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Of course he didn't have the nearly four decade long controversy over the reach of the Federal Clean Water Act in mind but...more

A Court-Side Seat: Hog Catching, “Hard Looks” and Hardship Exemptions

Pillsbury - Gravel2Gavel Construction & Real... on 2/17/2023

If “Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?” It’s been a quiet term thus far for the Supreme Court, due in part to the hearing of oral arguments in many contentious cases. Below is a brief summary of some of the recent...more

Sackett Preview: Sound and Fury Signaling What Exactly?

(ACOEL) | American College of Environmental... on 10/3/2022

The Supreme Court kicks off its 2022 term on October 3 with the highly anticipated argument in Sackett v EPA. Petitioners are seeking another blockbuster ruling a la West Virginia v EPA that hamstrung EPA’s authority to...more

Summary of Latest Federal Action Regarding PFAS

Farella Braun + Martel LLP on 4/21/2022

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

A Win For The Chesapeake Bay

(ACOEL) | American College of Environmental... on 4/13/2021

The Chesapeake Legal Alliance recently won a notable victory for the Assateague Coastal Trust in a successful challenge to the Maryland Department of Environmental Protection’s issuance of a state NPDES general permit for...more

Environmental Law – The Year in Review

Pillsbury - Gravel2Gavel Construction & Real... on 1/27/2021

JANUARY 2020 - FEDERAL APPELLATE COURTS - U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit - El Paso County, Texas, et al. v. Donald J. Trump, et al. On January 8, 2020, a divided panel of the court quickly granted a...more

No Vacatur, No Protection, No Deference and No Discretion: Important End-of-Summer Environmental Decisions

Pillsbury - Gravel2Gavel Construction & Real... on 9/17/2020

As the end of summer approaches, the courts have provided a potpourri of relevant environmental decisions. FEDERAL COURTS OF APPEAL - Town of Weymouth, et al. v. Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MDEP) -...more

US EPA Streamlines Appeals to Environmental Appeals Board

BakerHostetler on 8/26/2020

As of Sept. 21, 2020, the Environmental Appeals Board (EAB)—the body used to hear administrative appeals of permits issued by or on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—will begin operating under a new set...more

Reversing 30-Year Policy, U.S. DOJ Says Settlements Can No Longer Include Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs)

Stoel Rives - Environmental Law Blog on 3/25/2020

The U.S. Department of Justice (U.S. DOJ) recently issued a memorandum stating that settlements, including consent decrees, entered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other federal agencies can no longer include...more

DOJ Clarifies Limits on Third Party Payments in Environmental Settlements

Beveridge & Diamond PC on 1/31/2018

In a memorandum issued earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) clarified how a policy prohibiting settlement payments to third parties, announced in June 2017, will apply in cases handled by DOJ’s...more

Extreme Weather Fuels Increasing Trend of New Climate Change Litigation

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP on 9/14/2017

As federal efforts to roll back environmental regulations from the Obama era continue, environmental groups have been increasingly filing lawsuits against industry alleging damages related to climate change impacts, using the...more

DOJ Directive Threatens Availability of Penalty Mitigation Approach

WilmerHale on 6/28/2017

A June 5, 2017, Department of Justice (DOJ) policy directive threatens the ongoing availability of Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs) in civil environmental settlements. SEPs have traditionally provided a means by...more

Environmental Case Law Update

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP on 10/17/2016

“Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.” Many important environmental and administrative law decisions were reported by the federal and state courts over the past six months. The courts are dealing with very...more

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