Category: Emerging Issues

* This article is a follow-up to our October 2021 post “No Asylum from Microplastics: How Recent Studies May Spark a Flood of Environmental Litigation.”

It was inevitable. As soon as the media mentioned that microplastics were found in babies’ fecal matter—our most innocent demographic—the proverbial gloves came off, and now plastics manufacturers are in the arena sustaining blows from all angles.

Backstory

Truth bomb: It is estimated that the once esteemed and widespread use of plastics in manufacturing, dating back …

A year to the day from when President Joseph Biden announced a moratorium on federal leasing for oil and gas drilling just a week after his term began, a federal district court judge for the District of Columbia invalidated the largest oil and gas lease sale—for 2,700 square miles—in U.S. History. The lease, which fetched a combined offer of $192 million from some of the largest energy companies in the world, was for offshore drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico. The November 2021 auction …

Irony alert: that lithium battery powering up the laptop, smartphone, tablet, or smartwatch that is allowing you to view this article—which is likely the same breed of battery powering your digital camera, your teenager’s vape pen, your electric toothbrush, your father’s pacemaker, and your prized Tesla—though indeed a technological marvel, may also be contaminating your drinking water, eroding natural resources, and harming the environment in ways as copious as its innovative applications.

Truth be told, in a world consumed by climate crisis chatter and threatened …

This past Black Friday, while the rising cost of gas dominated the news and Americans began digging into their Thanksgiving leftovers, the U.S. Department of the Interior released a report concerning federal oil and gas leasing, prepared pursuant to Executive Order 14008. This order was signed by President Biden just days after he was inaugurated into office, placing a moratorium on federal oil and gas lease sales. Although the report does not recommend a total ban on oil and gas leasing on federal land, it …

In a world where everything is supersized, or perhaps more appropriately venti sized (because let’s be honest, anything less than a venti pumpkin latte is simply not adequate), we tend to overlook what isn’t pronounced. However, recent headlines involving the fate of our littlest constituents remind us that we should be paying more attention to the inconspicuous things in life for, as it turns out, the microsized may be the most threatening. Yes, it is arguably Darwinian to disregard the discreet dangers, ones that we …

Around 9 a.m. on Saturday morning, October 2, 2021, the United States Coast Guard was notified that Amplify Energy’s 17-mile San Pedro Pipeline, off California’s Huntington Beach coastline, was leaking. By Sunday morning, birds and fish were washing up onshore, covered in oil, and the beaches were closed to a concerned public. Days later, there are still more questions than answers about what is already shaping up to be one of California’s largest oil spills in the state’s history, having already resulted in at least …

In early September, President Biden released a fact sheet describing steps taken by the administration to advance innovation and the use of cleaner and more sustainable fuels in the American aviation industry, with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 20% by 2030 and reaching a zero-carbon aviation sector by 2050. According to the fact sheet, the aviation industry is responsible for 11% of transportation-related emissions in the United States, with that share expected to increase in the future. Meanwhile, less than 1% …