Stuart D. Kaplow, P.A.

Maryland Reverting to Certifiable In Lieu of Certified Green Building

By Stuart Kaplow on June 9, 2019

In response to an act of the Maryland legislature in 2018, the state is proposing a watershed revamp of its current mandatory green building requirements for new public school buildings. The public is being invited to comment on the proposal. Existing State Finance and Procurement Section 4-809(f) was amended adding new section (6), providing in relevant part, the Maryland Green Building Council shall: .. (6) Develop guidelines for new public school buildings to achieve the…

Green Building Law Update

EPA Cancels Pesticide Registrations to Save the Bees

By Stuart Kaplow on June 2, 2019

In a rare move, the EPA issued product cancellation orders for certain pesticides effective May 20, 2019. The pesticides contain neonicotinoids that, despite their widespread use have become controversial when laboratory studies reported a link between neonicotinoids and declining bee populations, although a link has not been replicated in field studies. Neonicotinoids are compounds in insecticides chemically related to nicotine. The name literally means “new nicotine-like insecticides.” Neonicotinoids pesticides first reached the market in the…

Green Building Law Update

GSA Reviews more than 100 Green Building Systems and Selects 5

By Stuart Kaplow on May 26, 2019

Section 436(h) of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 requires the General Services Administration’s Office of Federal High-Performance Buildings to complete a review of high performance building certification systems every 5 years. After the review, GSA recommends to the Secretary of Energy the building certification systems most likely to encourage a comprehensive approach to certification of high-performance buildings. The last review, in 2012, shook the green building industrial complex to its foundations, when…

Green Building Law Update

Recycled Restaurant Waste Cooking Oil Can Trigger Insurance Pollution Exclusion

By Stuart Kaplow on May 12, 2019

In a case having broad implications given the wide mandatory recycling of restaurant waste cooking oil across the country, in a decision filed on April 29, 2019, a federal appeals court held that contaminated recycled fat could trigger the “pollution exclusion” in an insurance policy. In Restaurant Recycling, LLC v. Employer Mutual Casualty Company, Restaurant Recycling purchased used fat, like waste cooking oil from restaurants in mandatory commercial organics recycling programs and the like,…

Green Building Law Update

Maryland Appellate Court Upholds Local Government Pesticide Ban

By Stuart Kaplow on May 5, 2019

Last week the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, the state’s intermediate appellate court, overturned an earlier circuit court decision, reinstating a Montgomery County ordinance significantly restricting pesticide use throughout the County. In October 2015, the Montgomery County Council enacted Bill No. 52-14 becoming the first major jurisdiction in the country to enact such a ban. Among its other provisions, the bill amended the Montgomery County Code to ban certain pesticide use on private and County…

Green Building Law Update

Maryland Bans Polystyrene and Enacts 31 other New Environmental Laws

By Stuart Kaplow on April 28, 2019

The Maryland General Assembly, the state’s legislative body meets in regular session for 90 days each year beginning the second Wednesday in January to act on more than 2,500 pieces of legislation. On sine die, when the legislature adjourned at midnight on the 90th day, on April 8, 2019, a total of 864 bills and 2 resolutions passed both chambers. The Governor has until May 28, the 30th day after presentment to sign or veto…

Green Building Law Update

Nurdles are the Environmental Calamity of 2019

By Stuart Kaplow on April 21, 2019

A year ago, I thought a nurdle was a cricket term for a score by deflecting the ball rather than striking it. But in the last twelve months I learned that a nurdle is also a term for a small, lentil size, pellet of plastic that serves as raw material in the manufacture of plastic products. Nurdle, an idiom for pre production plastic pellets, are the malleable polymers that are molded into everything from plastic…

Green Building Law Update

Tenants Order Phase l to Avoid Hazardous Substance Liability

By Stuart Kaplow on March 31, 2019

It has been a year since the omnibus spending bill signed on March 23, 2018 amended the Superfund law, for first time making clear that tenants can qualify as bona fide prospective purchasers, protected from cleanup costs from the presence of hazardous substances on a property; but tenants are only now beginning to order Phase l Environmental Site Assessments taking advantage of the liability protections in the new law. Buried in the Consolidated Appropriations Act…

Green Building Law Update

LEED Credit is Designed to Eliminate Illegal Wood in Buildings

By Stuart Kaplow on March 24, 2019

log-stacks-along-the-forest-road-picture-id901879786

The U.S. Green Building Council is being applauded for the release last week of the new pilot credit intended “to reduce the risk that illegally sourced, harvested or traded wood products are used in building.” The LEED BD+C: New Construction v4 MRpc127 – Timber Traceability pilot credit “is designed to up efforts to eliminate the use of illegal wood in buildings.” There may be no single subject matter more discussed with over the more than…

Green Building Law Update

Resilience is the Future of Real Estate and USGBC Spells it RELi

By Stuart Kaplow on March 17, 2019

Last Friday, Hudson Yards, the largest private real estate development in the country opened, but what the $25 Billion project may become best known for is that is designed for resilience from its giant “submarine doors” underground that can be closed to keep out storm surges to its own power plant that can keep the lights on even if New York City’s power grid goes down. The day before, the City of New York released…

Stuart D. Kaplow, P.A.

Stuart D. Kaplow, P.A. Blogs

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Maryland Reverting to Certifiable In Lieu of Certified Green Building

EPA Cancels Pesticide Registrations to Save the Bees

GSA Reviews more than 100 Green Building Systems and Selects 5

Recycled Restaurant Waste Cooking Oil Can Trigger Insurance Pollution Exclusion

Maryland Appellate Court Upholds Local Government Pesticide Ban

Maryland Bans Polystyrene and Enacts 31 other New Environmental Laws

Nurdles are the Environmental Calamity of 2019

Tenants Order Phase l to Avoid Hazardous Substance Liability

LEED Credit is Designed to Eliminate Illegal Wood in Buildings

Resilience is the Future of Real Estate and USGBC Spells it RELi

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