EPA’s Science Advisory Board (“SAB”) is one of eight statutorily established Federal Advisory Committees established under the Federal Advisory Committee Act to provide guidance on various environmental and health issues to EPA and other federal agencies.[1]See 5 U.S.C. App. There are 14 others established by the President or agency heads. Throughout the Obama administration, industry…
On February 11, 2019, 32 Democratic Delegates cosponsored House Joint Resolution 25, dubbed the “Environmental Rights Amendment.” The resolution proposes to amend the West Virginia constitution’s Bill of Rights by including a provision specifying that a clean environment is a constitutional right:
The Environmental Protection Agency and Corps of Engineers delivered their long-awaited definition of “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) on December 11. The pre-publication version of the rule released on that day marks the beginning of the end of one the most contentious issues in the history of American environmental law. The new definition will “encompass relatively permanent flowing and…
On November 21, 2018, the United States District Court for the District of Oregon stayed a climate change suit in order to allow for an interlocutory appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. An interlocutory appeal is an appeal of a specific ruling by a trial court that is made before the trial itself has actually concluded. The District Court’s order concerns a suit filed against the…
On November 14th, a federal district court dismissed a lawsuit filed by environmental groups against the owners of the Vermillion power plant, a retired coal-fired facility on the banks of the Middle Fork in Vermillion County, Illinois. Metals from coal ash were leaching from three unlined ponds into groundwater that flows to the Middle Fork, which happens to be both a federally and state…
Let’s say you have an unlined pond. It doesn’t directly discharge to any river or stream and, as a result, you’ve never applied for an NPDES permit. But, let’s assume that pollutants in the pond percolate into groundwater. And let’s further assume that these pollutants eventually make their way, via groundwater, to a river or stream.
We have written before about this case where a group of children have sued the United States Government for its failure to protect them from the effects of climate change. October 30, 2018. In prior rulings, a federal district court judge in Oregon has rebuffed efforts by the United States to dismiss the case on the grounds that it presents non-justiciable “political” questions rather than…
On October 19, 2018, the United State Supreme Court temporarily stayed a suit filed against the President and various executive agencies brought by 21 minors, an organization known as Earth Guardians, and “future generations” by and through their self-appointed guardian, Dr. James Hansen, who is a well-known climate scientist and climate change activist. See In Re United States of America, et…
In 2016, EPA finalized new source performance standards for emissions of greenhouse gases in the form of limitations on methane and volatile organic compounds (“VOC”) from the oil and natural gas sector. We have written about that rule before: “Obama Announces New Rules on Oil & Gas Industry’s Methane Emissions,” “EPA Withdraws 2016 Information Request on Methane Emissions from the Oil and Gas…
Readers may recall that last month, August 23, 2018, we reported that a federal district court in South Carolina enjoined an EPA rule suspending the 2015 “waters of the United States rule”. EPA had proposed to suspend the 2015 rule and reinstate the previous 1982 regulation defining what constitutes a water of the United States. EPA did so in part to provide uniformity to the definition applied…
On August 21, 2018, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) proposed the Affordable Clean Energy rule (“ACE”) as a replacement for the Obama Administration’s controversial 2015 Clean Power Plan (“CPP”), which EPA proposed to repeal because it exceeded the agency’s authority. On August 31, 2018, EPA officially published the proposed rule for public comment. SeeFed. 83 Reg. 44746 (Aug. 31,…
