Environmental Law Advisor

This US Supreme Court’s administrative and environmental decisions were somewhat predictable for much of the 2022-2023 term. And then they weren’t – the final weeks of the term especially featured some high-drama decisions.

Last week, the US Supreme Court ruled that the Biden Administration’s efforts to cancel $430 billion in student loan balances was legally unsupportable.

In the United States, environmental and public health measures often correlate to variables like education, income, and a community’s racial makeup.

A DC Circuit decision related to the US Environmental Protection Agency’ (EPA) hydroflurocarbons (HFC) phase out illustrates that federal regulations face significant scrutiny when reviewed in court even where the regulations have a textual hook and are largely consistent with prior agency practice.

A group of Delta Air Lines’ customers filed a class action suit alleging that the airline’s marketing claims of carbon neutrality are false and misleading. While this may be the first greenwashing case filed against a major airline, it is not the first carbon-focused greenwashing action.

The US Environmental Protection Agency defines “environmental justice” as “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and polici

Already among the most widely used battery chemistry, lithium-Ion (Li-Ion) batteries are experiencing a rapid increase in use and demand.

Addressing environmental justice (EJ) issues has been a primary concern for the Biden Administration. Recent developments — one in Chicago and one in Louisiana — show different ways local and state regulators have reacted to federal EJ efforts.

In a closely watched environmental Clean Water Act (CWA) case, the US Supreme Court adopted a far narrower construction of CWA’s definition of “waters of the United States,” functionally shifting significant authority over water-related issues from the federal government to the states.

Federalism — the allocation between federal and state governments — is at the heart of American constitutional law.

Crafting environmental regulations often takes time and substantive knowledge about complex technical and policy issues.

The concept of administrative deference — i.e., that the courts should defer to relevant agencies’ interpretations of ambiguous statutes they are tasked to administer — is a key component to the modern regulatory state.

The “Chevron doctrine,” meaning whether courts should defer to agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes they administer, has been viewed as a key underpinning of the modern regulatory state.

If you blink, there’s a good chance that you will miss a major development in the environmental justice (EJ) space.

The onslaught of environmental justice-related reforms has continued in early 2023. Below, we will outline four issues to keep an eye on in the coming quarter.

The past year has seen a new star become fixed in the judicial firmament.

Louisiana has been at the center of the past year’s eruption of environmental-justice related enforcement activities.

The Minnesota Legislature is currently considering legislation prohibiting the presence of intentionally added PFAS in a variety of consumer products by 2026 and in all consumer products by 2032.

Executive branch priorities are clearly set out in agency budget requests. While the amount budgeted generally changes when Congress has its say, the original request provides unique insight into how agencies perceive what can and should happen in the next fiscal year.

The war on plastics and petrochemicals has ramped up in 2023. The first two months of the year have seen the petrochemical supply chain under stress.

Environment, social, and governance (ESG) considerations related to investment and corporate governance have made front-page news in recent months, as US elected officials debate whether industry-related ESG practices may violate antitrust laws.

No industrial company wants to find itself on the morning news tied to a chemical spill or train derailment. Events like those can transform even the most highly regarded company into a movie villain and give rise to substantial liability. Preparation is essential.

Consumer-focused recycling is often driven at the municipal level. For the most part, local governments determine what can be recycled and whether residents need to bring recyclable materials to a central collection point, or whether they are collected from households at some interval.

A new set of environmental policies embraced by the Biden Administration ― environmental justice (EJ) ― may soon spur litigation in the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) space.

Americans have been “recycling” since colonial times. However, it wasn’t until the 1960s that Americans began viewing recycling ― often provided alongside rubbish removal ― a more formal solution to problems posed by consumer waste.