Category: Emerging Issues

Gavel on sounding block
Clean Water Act / Emerging Issues
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CWA Alert: Supreme Court Unanimously Rejects Executive Agencies’ Interpretation of the Clean Water Act

The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency continues its trend of limiting executive agencies, such as EPA, from expanding their authority when faced with statutory ambiguity — ambiguity such agencies have used to extend their reach to places and activities over which Congress has not given them express jurisdiction.

Sackett addresses the Clean Water Act’s (“CWA”) vague definition of “waters of the United States,” and the EPA’s use of that ambiguity to extend its regulatory reach. While the term “navigable …

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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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Pollution Factory Smoke in Air with Sky Bad for the Environment
Climate Change / Emerging Issues
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The Supreme Court Denies Fossil Fuel Companies’ Bid to Have the Climate Deception Cases in Federal Court

Since 2017, a number of state government entities from cities, counties, and states across the country have gone after fossil fuel companies in court charging them with violating state law by marketing their products as not harmful. These 11 cases have collectively been dubbed the “climate liability cases” or “climate deception cases.” Just a few weeks ago, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a petition dealing with the issue of whether or not these climate deception cases should be heard in state court …

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flammable liquid
Emerging Issues / EPA
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EPA Proposes Ban on Common Solvent and Processing Aid Methylene Chloride

In a proposed rule published on May 3, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommended a ban on most uses of methylene chloride (also called dichloromethane), a common solvent and processing aid. It is used in a variety of consumer and commercial applications including adhesives and sealants, automotive products, and paint and coating removers. The chemical was manufactured in significant volumes — the total aggregate production volume ranged from 100 million to 500 million pounds between 2016 and 2019, according to Chemical Data Reporting (CDR) – …

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Justice Scales and books and wooden gavel
California / Emerging Issues
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New Ninth Circuit Ruling: City of Berkeley’s Gas Ban Preempted by U.S. Energy Policy & Conservation Act

On Monday, April 18, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling in California Restaurant Association v. City of Berkeley, overturning a lower federal district court’s ruling to revoke the City of Berkeley, California’s ban of natural gas infrastructure in newly constructed buildings.

Berkeley’s prohibition against natural gas was seen as the first city-level law aimed at forcing developers and building owners to switch to building all-electric new buildings. Berkeley’s Ordinance No. 7,672-N.S. was passed unanimously by Berkeley’s City Council in December 2019 …

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detail of white smoke polluted sky
Climate Change / Emerging Issues
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How to Navigate the New 2022 Inflation Reduction Act Tracker Database

As reported in August 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act (“IRA”) is the United States’ largest (and most complex) commitment to investing in climate change to date. The 725-page law provides a number of clean-energy tax credits to qualifying companies and commits $370 billion in funds aimed at lowering energy costs and building up supply chains for everything from critical minerals to efficient electric appliances.

With so much information and different tax credit programs covered in the bill, it’s no wonder it was necessary to …

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recyclable packing
Emerging Issues / New York
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New York May Adopt Extended Producer-Responsibility Laws to Combat Consumer Waste

New York may be on board to be the fifth state in the nation to hold producers responsible for packaging products. 

Thus far, Maine, Oregon, Colorado, and California have enacted extended producer-responsibility laws.  The EPR laws assign both financial and operational responsibility for the end of life of products, and are an important tool for managing and lowering consumer waste. In other words, the programs require the producers of packaging products to finance the costs of recycling or disposing of products that consumers no longer …

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Close up view of railroad, transport background
Emerging Issues / EPA
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What We Know – and Might Never Know – about the East Palestine, Ohio, Train Derailment

A few hours after dinner time on Feb. 3, and approximately 20 miles following a dramatic slow-down from a speed of 50 miles per hour to about half that, a Norfolk Southern freight train consisting of 38 cars – 11 of which were carrying hazardous materials – derailed in East Palestine, Ohio.

Although the derailment released several types of chemicals, many of which can break down or react with elements in the environment, five of those 11 cars contained vinyl chloride, a highly flammable chemical …

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An Unrecognizable Caucasian Woman Buying Some Cosmetic Products
Emerging Issues
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Social Media Draws Viral Attention to Unfortunate Consequence of Paraben-Free Beauty Products

“Clean beauty” has taken over the cosmetics industry in the past several years, and while there is no official definition of the term, it is generally understood to refer to cosmetic products free from chemicals such as phthalates, sulfates, synthetic fragrances, and parabens, which is the term used for a group of preservatives used in beauty products.

Following the trend, in recent years, beauty and cosmetics retail giants such as Sephora and Ulta Beauty have designated “clean” products with certain labeling if they omit ingredients …

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Renewable Energy
Emerging Issues / President Biden
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European Union Moves to Create Subsidy Regime to Counteract U.S. Clean-Tech Policies

The European Union plans to push back against the clean-tech tax breaks provided in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) by easing subsidy rules and creating a new source of money to help member states compete with the United States.

Some EU members see aspects of the IRA as discriminatory, designed to benefit U.S. climate tech manufacturers at the expense of Europe. The IRA sets aside $369 billion worth of tax breaks and subsidies to boost green technology and energy security in the U.S., several of …

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