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Two Days, Three Decisions, One Big Mess: Welcome to Judicial Review of the...
On Wednesday, Judge Irene Keeley of the Northern District of West Virginia held that district courts do not have jurisdiction to hear challenges to EPA’s rule defining waters of the United States,...
View ArticleFirst Blood: North Dakota Federal Court Strikes WOTUS Rule
With so many challenges filed in so many venues to EPA’s Waters of the United States or WOTUS rule, it seemed inevitable that some plaintiffs somewhere would find a sympathetic court. And so it is...
View ArticleWhole Lot of Craziness Going On
A whole lot of craziness is going on in federal district and appellate courts all over the country right now. About what? About judicial review of EPA’s recent “WOTUS” rule under the Clean Water Act...
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Chicken Little Cannot Compare to the Opponents of the Clean Power Plan
On Wednesday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the latest effort to stay EPA’s Clean Power Plan before it has even been promulgated in the Federal Register. The Court simply stated that...
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A Brief Rant on Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
On September 29, 2015, the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals remanded EPA’s approval of Pennsylvania’s regional haze SIP. Although I think that the decision was important and largely unobjectionable, it...
View ArticleCuriouser and Curiouser: Sixth Circuit Not Sure of Jurisdiction but Stays...
Does this make sense to you? Eighteen states petitioned the Sixth Circuit to challenge the new rule adopted by EPA and the Corps of Engineers defining “waters of the United States” under the Clean...
View ArticleEPA Proposes Changes to Hazardous Waste Generator Rules and a new Management...
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing two new hazardous waste rules that EPA believes will strengthen environmental protection and reduce regulatory burdens. The first is an...
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What Do Opponents of the Clean Power Plan and the Oklahoma Sooners Have In...
So the Clean Power Plan has been published in the Federal Register. For those who cannot get enough, you can find all of the important materials, including EPA’s Technical Support Documents, on EPA’s...
View ArticleEPA RELEASES FRAMEWORK FOR FUTURE CERCLA 108(b) FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY...
The Environmental Protection Agency has released a framework for its future financial responsibility rulemaking under CERCLA 108(b). Although this framework states EPA’s current thinking only in...
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EPA To Rename OSWER: How About “The Office That Should Be Eliminated As Soon...
According to the Daily Environment Report (subscription required), EPA is going to change the name of the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response to the Office of Land and Emergency Management....
View ArticlePetitioner Beware: A Shift in Industry Standing Doctrine in the D.C. Circuit
In a string of recent decisions, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit appears to be shifting away from the long-standing general presumption that standing is self-evident for...
View ArticleAfter 15 Years, EPA Finally Moves to Ban Brain-Damaging Pesticide Chlorpyrifos
Nearly 15 years have passed since the EPA effectively banned the residential use of the pesticide chlorpyrifos (often marketed under the name Dursban), which causes brain damage in children. Kids were...
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Does the Paris Agreement Provide EPA With Authority Under the CAA To Impose...
In a very interesting article, Michael Burger of the Sabin Center and his co-authors suggest that, following the Paris climate agreement, § 115 of the Clean Air Act provides authority for EPA to...
View ArticleEPA Has Surprisingly Broad Authority to Regulate GHGs
Our friend Seth Jaffe wrote a very interesting blog on January 20, “Does the Paris Agreement Provide EPA With Authority Under the CAA to Impose Economy-Wide GHG Controls? Count Me Skeptical.” It took...
View Article"We All Let the Citizens of Flint Down"
With busloads of concerned citizens from Flint and nearby cities gathered around the Rayburn House Office Building on February 3, environmental regulators and science experts appeared before the U.S....
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EPA and DOJ Cannot Sugarcoat This: SCOTUS Stays the Clean Power Plan
Yesterday, the Supreme Court stayed EPA’s Clean Power Plan rule. No matter how much EPA and DOJ proclaim that this says nothing about the ultimate results on the merits, the CPP is on very shaky...
View ArticleUnprecedented Program Leads To Unprecedented Response
I am a terrible predictor of what cases the Supreme Court will hear and what the Court will decide on those matters it chooses to hear. For example, I wrongly predicted that the Supreme Court would...
View ArticleSupreme Court Puts Clean Power Plan on Hold, but Clean Agriculture Can Move...
The Supreme Court's unexplained stay of the clean power plan was "one of the most environmentally harmful judicial actions of all time," writes Michael Gerrard of Columbia Law School in a recent,...
View ArticleThe Supreme Court Doesn’t Think Much of Paris in the Springtime
For us gray hairs, the phrase used to be “Dateline”, now it’s “Tweetline” . . . Flash!. . . President Obama @POTUS “. . . Addressing climate change takes all of us, especially the private...
View ArticleCourts Narrow Citizen Suit Potential
Citizen suits under federal environmental laws have been under fire through criticism of “sue and settle” where agencies, in particular the U.S. EPA, have been accused of intentionally relinquishing...
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