Author: Sarah B. Mangelsdorf

Elevation Sea Level Sign, Death Valley National Park, California, USA
Climate Change / Emerging Issues
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Using Technology to Turn the Tide on Climate Change

A 2022 Interagency Sea Level Rise Technical Report, authored by various governmental agencies, found that global mean sea levels could rise between one and seven feet by 2100.  This would me significant impacts to the more than 40 percent of Americans who live near coastal waters. Coastal flooding can have major impacts to infrastructure, such as roads and homes, as well as many other impacts to human health. For example, rising sea levels can also threaten hazardous waste facilities, such as landfills, that are located …

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Various types of plastic trash on the grass. Plastic for recycling.
EPA / Plastic
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Pitching the Plastic: A Call to Reduce Plastic Pollution

On the eve of Earth Day, the Biden Administration announced a new “White House Interagency Policy Committee (“IPC”) on Plastic Pollution and a Circular Economy.” The IPC is tasked with coordinating federal efforts on plastic pollution, prioritizing public health, economic development, environmental justice, and equity to ensure that the benefits of acting on plastic pollution are available to all.

Alongside the IPC, the Environmental Protection Agency also released a draft “National Strategy to Prevent Plastic Pollution” for public comment, which seeks to eliminate the release …

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blurred river
EPA / WOTUS
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New Year, New WOTUS: Is There Resolution in Sight?

The Environmental Protection Agency’s and Army Corps of Engineers’ “Revised Definition of ‘Waters of the United States’”(WOTUS) rule will become final on March 20. This latest iteration codifies the agencies’ pre-2015 approach to defining WOTUS and attempts to establish a bridge between the interpretations offered by the prior two administrations. In particular, the rule’s preamble specifically states that in “developing this rule, the agencies considered the text of the relevant provisions of the Clean Water Act and the statute as a whole, the scientific record, …

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Gavel and green blur background
Due Diligence / EPA
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Advancing Environmental Justice: EPA Releases New Roadmap to Address Cumulative Impacts

The Environmental Protection Agency recently published a Cumulative Impacts Addendum (“Addendum”) to its Legal Tools to Advance Environmental Justice (“EJ Legal Tools”), issued in May 2022. 

This Addendum builds on the cumulative impacts discussion in the EJ Legal Tools and provides additional detail and analysis regarding the EPA’s legal authority to address cumulative impacts affecting communities with environmental justice concerns.[1] These authorities include standard-setting, permitting, cleanup, emergency response, funding, planning, and state program oversight.

Although the Addendum itself is not a legally …

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Single wind turbine, a coal burning power plant with pollution and electricity pylons in the background.
Emissions / President Biden
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Outsmarting Climate Change: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Greenhouse Gas Regulation

For nearly a decade, there has been a trend of decreasing industry greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions … that is, until now. According to the World Meteorological Organization, atmospheric levels of the three main greenhouse gases—carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide—all reached new record highs in 2021. In addition, these emissions have increased almost an additional 1% in the United States for 2022. Although the reason for this increase is not entirely clear, it is likely the result of both biological and human-induced processes, including a …

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