Category: Emerging Issues

Hoping to one day overtake Norway as the world’s largest clean energy producer and to join the small group of countries who have achieved net zero greenhouse gas emissions, the U.S. has set some ambitious goals for itself. In fact, the United States has committed to achieving 100% clean electricity production by 2035 and attaining net zero gas emissions by 2050. From where it ranks currently in both these categories, meeting these lofty goals will require not only a sizeable investment in clean energy technologies …

Lilial, the trade name of a chemical compound commonly used as a perfume in cosmetics, shampoos, and cleaning products, which is known by its longer name butylphenyl methylpropional, has been banned in personal care products in the European Union as of March 1, 2022. And while the ban was announced nearly two years ago, the March 1deadline has garnered significant attention, prompting social media users to call attention products produced in the United States that contain the ingredient.

By way of background, in August 2020, …

Although only 16% of Americans have personally invested in or exchanged cryptocurrencies, the ever-increasing use of this virtual currency in the U.S. will have very real ramifications for virtually all Americans. Arguably, the most consequential effect concerns the significant energy consumption required to mine cryptocurrencies, and its potential to act as a hindrance in the battle against climate change, as illustrated by a growing concern among several committees within the U.S. House of Representatives, as well as by an ongoing battle over a crypto-mining moratorium …

Thanks to the streaming mega hit Yellowstone, and perhaps Kim and Kanye’s brief stint in Wyoming, the West is no longer reserved for John Wayne wanna-bes and would-be snowboarders or adventurers looking to escape metropolis. In fact, our western states, historically rural and rugged, have attracted what some would consider too much attention, drawing not just the tourism of city slickers, but also the attention of big industry. While some westerners welcome industrial development and the resulting increase in job opportunities, many today are concerned …

On February 3, 2022 a Los Angeles County, California judge concluded an early evidentiary hearing centered on the opinions from four of the plaintiff’s experts in one of the nation’s first lawsuits over baby food allegedly contaminated with toxic metals. In what is known in California as a Sargon hearing, the defendants asked the court to evaluate “whether reliable scientific evidence exists that lead, arsenic, and/or mercury (the “heavy metals”) can cause autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and whether lead can cause attention deficit hyperactivity disorder …

* 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 …