Environmental

Judge Suspends State Procedures as Applied to Majority of Waters of the State; Retains Application to Waters Subject to the Clean Water Act and All Ocean Waters Regardless of Jurisdiction

By Nicole E. Granquist & Meghan A. Quinn

January 22, 2021

On December 17, 2020, the Sacramento County Superior Court substantially limited the scope of waters to which the State Procedures for Discharges of Dredged and Fill Material (“Procedures”) apply through its decision in San Joaquin Tributaries Authority v. State Water Resources Control Board (Case No. 34-2019-80003133). According to the Court, the State Water Resources Control Board (“State Water Board”) exceeded its policy-making and water quality control plan development authority, resulting in the restriction of the…

Environmental Law & Policy Monitor

Trump EPA’s Last-Minute Surprise on Climate Standards for New Coal-Fired Utilities Intended to Block Similar Standards for Other Sectors

By Mack McGuffey & Melissa Horne

January 22, 2021

Just before the inauguration of President Biden, the Trump administration surprised many by failing to revise the stringent CO2 standard for new coal-fired power plants. That standard, adopted by the Obama administration, is based on the use of carbon capture and sequestration — a technology only installed once in the U.S. at a facility that has now been mothballed. When the Trump administration proposed to repeal and replace that standard in 2018, the chance of…

The Nickel Report

Tips For Minimizing Liability When Responding to a COVID-19 Incident

By Daniel J. Grucza

January 21, 2021

Incident Response Tip: Responding to a COVID-19 Incident The COVID-19 pandemic remains a health crisis in the United States and presents many unique challenges for employers. Many employers have already experienced COVID-19 cases among employees, while others may face such challenges as cases of the virus continue to rise. Though unique in some respects, the response to a COVID-19 incident has parallels to an industrial accident response, which involves developing and timely deploying the right…

Inside Energy & Environment

On Day 1, President Biden Creates Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases

By Brandon Rattiner

January 21, 2021

The gears of the administrative state are whirling as President Biden refocuses federal agencies on fighting climate change. Yesterday’s Executive Order on Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis (“EO”) shows just how seriously the incoming Administration views this reorientation, and it identifies a tool central to its strategy: enlarging the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases (“GHGs”).…

Workplace Safety and Environmental Law Alert Blog

USW Official James Frederick Selected as Deputy Assistant Secretary at OSHA

By Seyfarth Shaw LLP

January 21, 2021

By James L. Curtis, Brent I. Clark, Adam R. Young, Patrick D. Joyce, and Craig B. Simonsen Seyfarth Synopsis: Frederick will take over as the No. 2 official at OSHA, after having already spent 25 years as the top investigator at the United Steelworkers union’s health, safety, and environment department. In that job Frederick pressed for new safety standards on a number of issues, including workplace violence, according to a union…

Law & The Environment

President Biden Pulls the Plug on Keystone XL — Let’s Make Sure It Sets the Right Precedent

By Seth Jaffe

January 21, 2021

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Yesterday, President Biden hit the ground running on environmental policy, issuing an Executive Order on Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis. There’s a lot in it, so I think I’m going to have to take it in blog-sized bites. Let’s start with Section 6, in which he revoked the Presidential permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. keystone pipeline protestors in silhouette with man holding ‘NO XL’…

Environment, Land & Resources

DC Circuit Overturns Trump Administration Power Plant Rule

By Latham & Watkins LLP

January 21, 2021

The decision clears a path for President Biden’s climate priorities, striking down a Trump Administration rule that had repealed the Obama Administration’s power plant greenhouse gas regulations. By Stacey L. VanBelleghem and Devin M. O’Connor On January 19, 2021, on the eve of President Biden’s inauguration, in American Lung Association, et al. v. EPA, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Affordable Clean Energy (ACE)…

EHS Law Insights

New EU legislation on reducing methane emissions in the energy sector is set for 2021

By Adam Hedley, Nicholas Rock & George Viopoulos

January 21, 2021

The European Commission is moving forward with its legislative agenda to reduce methane emissions in the energy industry, specifically the oil, gas and coal sectors. Following the Commission’s October 2020 Communication (COM 2020/663 final) on an EU strategy to reduce methane emissions as part of the EU Green Deal programme, the Commission has set out the policy options under consideration as part of a public consultation. The consultation should be followed later in 2021 by…

The Nickel Report

EPA’s FY2020 Annual Enforcement Results Are In

By Samuel L. Brown, Todd S. Mikolop & Alexandra Hamilton

January 20, 2021

Last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) released its annual enforcement report detailing the results of the past year’s civil and criminal enforcement and compliance efforts. The report covers the 2020 fiscal year, which ran from October 1, 2019, through September 30, 2020, and thus provides some key insight into the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on environmental enforcement.…

The Nickel Report

New Memo Doubles Down and Bolsters Justice Department Positions on Limiting Supplemental Environmental Projects

By Shannon S. Broome, Charles H. Knauss, Alexandra Hamilton, Lauren A. Bachtel, Samuel L. Brown, David C. McSweeney & Todd S. Mikolop

January 20, 2021

A January 12, 2021 US Department of Justice (DOJ) memorandum extends and provides additional legal analysis to support the government’s increasing drumbeat against settling cases and reducing environmental penalties in recognition of Supplemental Environmental Projects or “SEPs.” The new memo addresses the limited circumstances under which attorneys in DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD), the division of DOJ that represents EPA and other federal agencies in enforcing environmental laws, may include certain mitigation requirements…