LATEST INSIGHTS

Justice Scales and books and wooden gavel
California / Emerging Issues
Posted by:

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 …

Continue Reading
United States Environmental Protection Agency
Clean Air Act / EPA
Posted by:

Highly Anticipated Proposed EtO Rules the EPA Just Announced: Were They Worth The Wait?

After years of delays – largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic – on April 11, 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finally issued two proposals that would reduce ethylene oxide (EtO) emissions affecting fence-line communities neighboring EtO sterilization facilities and establish direct protections for facility employees likely to be regularly exposed to this sterilizing chemical. The proposals, which fall under the Clean Air Act (CAA) and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), are expected to dramatically reduce EtO emissions by a whopping 80% …

Continue Reading
coal power plant emissions
EPA / Wastewater
Posted by:

The EPA Proposes New Wastewater Discharge Standards on Coal-Fired Power Plants

The Environmental Protection Agency announced on March 29, 2023 new proposed wastewater discharge standards to reduce discharges of toxic metals and other pollutants from coal-fired power plants. Steam electric power plants use heat to create steam that produces electricity. These plants use large amounts of water – approximately 133 billion gallons a day. This water is drawn from rivers, lakes, and estuaries. The plants use this water for various processes including cooling and generating steam. Over the last thirty years, new technologies have been developed …

Continue Reading
truck traffic
Automotive / California
Posted by:

EPA Gives California Green Light to Hit the Brakes on Heavy Truck Emissions

California has been pushing hard recently to lose its status as the second-largest contributor of the nation’s greenhouse gases (still comfortably behind Texas.)

In 2020, the California Air Resources Board (“CARB”) enacted the Advanced Clean Trucks (“ACT”) rule, the world’s first zero-emissions commercial truck requirement. Specifically, ACT required large-capacity vehicle (truck) manufacturers to phase out gasoline and diesel trucks, which account for the largest single source of pollution in the world’s fifth-largest economy, by replacing them with ever-larger volumes of vehicles with zero emissions. By …

Continue Reading
crypto mining
Crypto / Emissions
Posted by:

Crypto Mining Not Going Anywhere – Maybe Just Not How You Think

It has been a rough year for cryptocurrency mining. Just a year ago, the U.S. House of Representatives held a hearing addressing the environmental effects of cryptocurrency mining, with a particular focus on the process’s use of energy and resulting high rates of emissions (covered by ELM here), but with a noticeable bent of optimism and openness from the presiding representatives who ran the panel. Millennial U.S. Congressman Ritchie Torres of New York even went so far as to declare: “With a multi-billion-dollar market …

Continue Reading
detail of white smoke polluted sky
Climate Change / Emerging Issues
Posted by:

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 …

Continue Reading
drinking water
EPA / PFAS
Posted by:

On the Heels of EPA’s Proposed Rule, New York State DEC Releases Final Ambient Water Quality Guidance Values for PFAS

Just two days after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to establish legally enforceable drinking-water levels for six per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), reported by ELM here, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation released final ambient water quality guidance values for PFOA, PFOS, and 1,4-Dioxane in New York State waters.

In a March 15 press release the DEC said “[t]he finalized guidance values support the State’s ongoing efforts to protect public health and the environment and prevent …

Continue Reading
drinking water
EPA / PFAS
Posted by:

EPA Brings Down The Hammer On PFAS: Proposed Drinking Water Regulations Push The Limit

Earlier this week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking titled, PFAS National Primary Drinking Water Regulation Rulemaking. 

In keeping to its commitments in the PFAS Strategic Roadmap, the EPA took a significant step by proposing to establish legally enforceable drinking-water levels for six per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) known to occur in drinking water: PFOA, PFOS, PFHxS, GenX Chemicals, PFNA, and PFBS.

“Through this proposed rule, EPA is leveraging the most recent science and building on existing state efforts …

Continue Reading
recyclable packing
Emerging Issues / New York
Posted by:

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 …

Continue Reading
concept of cyber attack Cyber security is compromised. when the armor is destroyed The red key and the structure explode the polygon into smaller pieces. Computer system technology has been hacked.
Cybersecurity / EPA
Posted by:

Cyber-Waterfare: the EPA Moves to Protect Key Infrastructure from Hackers

In 2021, an unidentified person hacked the computer controlling the water system in Oldsmar, Fla., and increased the concentration of sodium hydroxide 100 times the normal amount, in an attempt to poison people. 

That same year, an unidentified hacker used a stolen password to delete certain programs from a water treatment program in the San Francisco Bay area.

Part of the reason attacks like these are increasing in number and sophistication is because there quite simply may not be a sufficient apparatus to prevent them. …

Continue Reading