Category: Regulations

Sea and Sky
Regulations
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Jurisdiction at Depth: Updating U.S. Deep-Sea Mining Policy Under Executive Order 14285

With the rapid and exponential advancement of modern technology, there is a corresponding increase in demand for the foundational raw materials that enable such progress. Contemporary innovations, including electric vehicles, smartphones and other high-performance electronics are critically dependent on specific mineral resources such as cobalt, nickel, lithium and copper. These materials serve as indispensable components in batteries, circuitry and other essential systems, underscoring their strategic importance in sustaining technological development. Consequently, securing reliable access to these resources has become a pressing global concern.

Historically, these …

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Emissions / Regulations
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Does EtO’s Recent Regulatory Battle Victory Mean It Will Win the War?

Following years of heightened concern about the dangers of exposure to ethylene oxide (EtO), increased regulatory oversight, and a steady hum of litigation, in 2025 it seems like things might be changing for the beleaguered industry dependent upon this highly effective but potentially cancer-causing sterilizing gas. With a new administration in the White House, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency laser focused on deregulation, and with the first defense verdict issued in an EtO case out in Colorado this past spring (covered by …

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Spring meadow and blue sky over grass field, countryside landscape
NEPA / Regulations
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Agencies Take Major Federal Action Significantly Affecting NEPA’s Future

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) applies to a major federal action that significantly affects the quality of the human environment. On June 30, several federal agencies took their own federal action which will likely have significant impacts in how NEPA is implemented in the future.

In particular, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Department of Agriculture (DOA), Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Interior (DOI) and Department of Transportation (DOT) revoked their regulations which govern how these agencies handle their review of proposed projects under …

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Large coal fired power plant with smoking chimneys
EPA / Regulations
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New Proposed Rules Would Repeal Certain Regulations on Power Plants, Mercury and Air Toxics Standards

The Trump administration is proposing two repeals: one on regulations of power plants and the other on certain amendments to the 2024 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards.

The administration believes these regulations have “imposed massive costs on coal-, oil-, and gas-fired power plants, raising the cost of living for American families, imperiling the reliability of our electric grid, and limiting American energy prosperity.”

First: EPA is proposing to repeal all “greenhouse gas” emissions standards for the power sector under Section 111 of the Clean …

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smoke background
EPA / Regulations
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EPA Announces Rollbacks on 31 Environmental Provisions

The new administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin, announced March 12 the agency would be rolling back 31 key environmental provisions that regulate air pollution, water protections, and the energy sector. A few of the key rollbacks are:

  • Reconsideration of regulations on power plants aimed at reducing power plant emissions by setting standards on carbon dioxide emissions and regulations.
  • Reconsideration of mercury and air toxics standards, including standards aimed at coal-powered plants which sought to reduce pollutants and regulations requiring the safe management
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Majestic giants in Sequoia National Park in California, USA
NEPA / Regulations
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Navigating NEPA in the New Year

On January 31 — in Marin Audubon Society et al. v. FAA et al. — the D.C. Circuit Court declined petitions for en banc review of a panel’s November 2024 ruling that the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) does not have the legal authority to promulgate regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

The dispute centers around claims made by environmental groups that the Federal Aviation Administration and National Park Service violated NEPA when they approved tour flights over California’s Bay Area …

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oil refinery
California / Regulations
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Law Gives California’s Energy Commission Ability to Nudge Oil Refiners to Make Better Inventory Decisions

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on October 14 signed into law Assembly Bill X2-1, significantly increasing the authority of the California Energy Commission (CEC) to create requirements for the state’s oil refiners to preserve minimum inventories of state-compliant refined transportation fuels.

Authored by assemblymembers Gregg Hart and Cecilia Aguiar-Curry in conjunction with Sen. Nancy Skinner, the law take effect in January 2025 and expands the powers of the recently created Division of Petroleum Market Oversite (DPMO) within the CEC.

DPMO was created last year as …

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Supreme_Court
Regulations
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Living in a De Novo World – Life after Chevron

On June 28, in a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court in Loper Bright Enterprises, et al. v. Raimondo Secretary of Commerce, et al., held that federal courts must exercise independent judgment in deciding whether a federal agency has acted within its statutory authority. This decision upends 40 years of precedent set forth by the court’s prior finding in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council (“Chevron”). 

Until now, it was well known that Chevron was the legal standard in administrative law for determining …

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Ecological catastrophy
Climate Change / Regulations
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ITLOS Issues Historic Advisory Opinion on Climate Change and International Law

On May 21, 2024, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) published what has been deemed as an “historic” and “unprecedented” advisory opinion on climate change, international law, and on state obligations regarding climate change. Sought by the international organization called the Commission of Small Island States (COSIS), the historic nature of this opinion comes from the fact that this is the first time an international tribunal has issued an opinion clarifying the international law obligations on states binding them to protect …

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Aerial/Drone view of a wind farm with multiple wind turbines at sunrise
President Biden / Regulations
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New NEPA Rule Eases Permitting Process while Advancing Environmental Justice

On the final day of April 2024, a week and a half after Earth Day, the Biden-Harris Administration announced that the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) finalized a rule intended to simplify and modernize the federal environmental review process under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). A pillar of environmental law passed in 1970, NEPA requires federal agencies to assess the environmental, social, and economic impacts of a wide array of agency activities, such as land management, infrastructure construction, and permitting decisions. This …

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