The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) took formal steps this week to rescind a decades-old rule that protects 58.5 million acres of wild areas in national forests, including 4.4 million acres in California. The agency...more
Environmental Vanguard is a quarterly newsletter sharing key insights from McGuireWoods’ leading environmental attorneys and consultants at the forefront of regulatory, litigation and policy developments. This issue covers...more
On March 13, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it would move forward with reconsideration of the Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding (Endangerment Finding) as directed in President Trump’s Executive Order...more
On December 12, 2024, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife released its draft Western Joshua Tree Conservation Plan (Draft Conservation Plan) to the California Fish and Game Commission (Commission), as required by...more
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (“IDNR”) has issued a June 2024 Report titled: 2022 Iowa Landfill Material Analysis (“Report”). The Report was prepared by SCS Engineers....more
One of the Bay Area’s largest reservoirs is about to get bigger thanks to a partnership between local water agencies and the federal government. The San Luis Reservoir Dam, between Los Banos and Gilroy, will be raised 10 feet...more
The National Waste & Recycling Association (“NWRA”) filed a Petition for Review (“Petition”) before the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit challenging a Final Action undertaken by the United...more
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) opened on October 25th a Non-regulatory Public Docket addressing municipal solid waste landfills....more
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) issued an Enforcement Alert (“EA”) titled: EPA Finds MSW Landfills are Violating Monitoring and Maintenance Requirements....more
The Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) issued an August 16th Order Denying a Petition Objecting to the issuance of a Clean Air Act Title V Operating Permit (“Permit”) for the Turnkey...more
The Southern Environmental Law Center (“SELC”) on behalf of the Environmental Justice Community Action Network filed a Proposed Judicial Consent Decree (“CD”) in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of...more
A California Superior Court judge ruled last week that Sonoma County must do more to ensure responsible groundwater pumping under the state’s Public Trust Doctrine, which holds that rivers, creeks, and other waterways are...more
The Environmental Protection Agency intends to issue a rule updating its Clean Air Act emission standards for new and existing municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills to cut methane and other harmful landfill gas emissions....more
Good morning! This is Akin’s newsletter on climate change policy and regulatory developments, providing information on major climate policy headlines from the past week and forthcoming climate-related events and hearings...more
Climate change threatens to dramatically shrink the amount of water California can deliver over the next 20 years and could significantly reduce supplies available from the State Water Project according to new projections...more
In furtherance of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s PFAS Strategic Roadmap, which our firm has written about frequently, the EPA released an updated guide on destroying and disposing of PFAS....more
Chemical and manufacturing groups sued the federal government on Monday over a landmark drinking water standard that would require cleanup of certain PFAS, so-called forever chemicals, which have been linked to cancer and...more
On April 17, 2024, the EPA signed a final rule to designate PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), also known as Superfund. The...more
On April 8, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued interim guidance for public comment regarding the destruction and disposal of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Below, we discuss the guidance and...more
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a suite of final rules aimed at reducing contamination, emissions, and discharges from coal- and gas-fired power plants on April 25. This suite of rules includes two...more
As our readers are likely familiar from our past blog posts here, here and here, in September 2022, EPA proposed to designate PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances under section 102(a) of Comprehensive Environmental Response,...more
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today designated two types of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that have been used in cookware, carpets, and firefighting foams as hazardous substances, an action...more
In response to critics who said that proposed new statewide water conservation rules — aimed at cutting urban water use even in years when California is not in a drought — were too complicated and costly, the State Water...more
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on Thursday that it is delaying planned rules to curb emissions from existing natural gas plants. The agency said it is still on track to finalize rules for coal-fired power...more
Sixteen individuals (collectively, “Petitioners”) filed a February 9th Title V Petition to Object (“Petition”) before the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) related to Waste Management of New Hampshire,...more