DATA TO THE PEOPLE!
In the twilight of the Trump Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency issued an internal procedural rule entitled “Strengthening Transparency in Pivotal Science Underlying Significant...
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A FLORID (AND POSSIBLY SIGNIFICANT?) ACE DISSENT
On January 19, 2021, the D.C. Circuit issued its long-awaited decision on the Trump EPA’s Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule. American Lung Assn. v. EPA, No. 19-1140. The ACE rule was the Trump EPA’s...
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Leaving on the Midnight Train to Maui (Going Back to Find a Simpler Place in...
With apologies to Gladys Knight & the Pips:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwbmufPphP0It is not unusual for a lame duck administration to issue a flurry of midnight rules and administrative actions...
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Environmental Justice: Where Are the Roadblocks?
We have known since the 1980s that people of color bear a disproportionate share of environmental harms. In 1994, President Clinton issued Executive Order 12,898, which required federal agencies to...
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EPA’s Ozone NAAQS Decision — Perhaps the Statute Itself Deserves Some of the...
Last week, EPA formalized its decision to leave the ozone NAAQS unchanged, at 70 ppb. I don’t think that this decision is in the same category of egregiousness as EPA’s recent decision not to reduce...
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EPA Finalizes Decision to Retain the Existing PM2.5 NAAQS — Single Worst...
On Tuesday, EPA finalized its decision to retain the existing PM2.5 NAAQS of 12 ug/m3, rejecting substantial scientific evidence that PM2.5 causes significant harm at concentrations below 12 ug/m3. In...
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Who Gets To Decide What is a Major Source That Requires a Permit? That’s a...
The recent decision by the 8th Circuit that the Coyote Creek Mining Company did not require a major source permit under the Clean Air Act is both fascinating and important. The question on the merits...
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Combating Climate Change with the Clean Air Act’s International Air Pollution...
As the key staffing decisions and priority policy agendas for President-elect Joseph R. Biden begin to take shape, the questions of when and how the administration will act on his campaign’s climate...
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Regulating Guidance As Though It Were Regulation
I’ve been complaining about guidance for most of the 33 years I’ve been in practice. The summary of the issue provided in Appalachian Power v. EPA in 2000 still has not been bettered:Congress passes a...
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Not Quite the Same as Making Mexico Pay For the Wall
As the New York Times has documented, President Trump stated numerous times that Mexico would pay for the border wall. With this context, it was hard not to appreciate the delicious irony when EPA...
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Assistant Attorney General Clark’s Clean Water Act Edict: A Solution to a...
During the dog days of summer in a general election year, Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Bossert Clark, the nation's top environmental lawyer, has issued an eloquent, albeit curiously sourced, ten...
View ArticleSurprise! New WOTUS Rule Leads to Conflicting Rulings
It was clear to everyone, including this humble blogger, that EPA’s new rule defining Waters of the United States (WOTUS) would bring little clarity to this fraught area of law. The rule took effect...
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Woe Is WOTUS, Redux
Sometimes, history repeats itself. Sometimes, that is not a good thing.After the Obama WOTUS rule was promulgated in 2015, the challenges came fast and furious, and in multiple forums. The Supreme...
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EPA Finalizes New Clean Water Act Section 401 Certification Rules—Will States...
On June 1, 2020, the Environmental Protection Agency released its new rules implementing section 401 of the Clean Water Act (CWA). Section 401 provides that before a federal agency can approve a...
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Has President Trump Just Limited Enforcement To Willful Violations?
On Tuesday, President Trump issued an Executive Order on Regulatory Relief to Support Economic Recovery. I’ll leave to others a discussion of the provisions telling agencies to look for more...
View ArticleNot So Fast! Oregon DEQ Objects to EPA’s Draft NPDES Permits for Lower...
On May 15, 2020, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (“DEQ”) submitted a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) in which it objected to EPA’s draft water quality discharge...
View ArticleWill Federal Rollbacks Lead to the Rise of Localism?
Based on research from law professors at Harvard and Columbia, the New York Times reported this month that the Trump administration has reversed, or is in the process of reversing, almost 100 federal...
View ArticleEPA’s War on Science
Since its creation under President Nixon five decades ago, EPA has, for the most part, been an independent agency utilizing the best science available, even where the science led it to policy results...
View ArticleA Ray of Regulatory Sunshine
We are all desperate for good news. In my continuing efforts not to become further mired in the quiet despair we are all experiencing, I thought I would pass along some good news, ironically...
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EPA Remains the “Anti-Environmental Protection Agency”; Wheeler Refuses to...
After more than three years of ignoring science whenever it does not support this Administration’s preferred outcomes, the issue of the future of science in environmental regulation has now been well...
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