LATEST INSIGHTS

house with fallen trees after a strom
Florida
Posted by:

No Calm After the Storm

Perhaps Floridians know best that the calm after the storm is really just proverbial. In truth, the environmental aftermath of Hurricane Ian may be the greater storm to overcome – one from which west Florida and the Gulf Coast may not easily recover.

Hurricane Ian unleashed a path of destruction across the southeast on September 28, 2022, when it made landfall as a Category 4 storm, devastating the state of Florida and its Gulf Coast. The catastrophic statistics are self-evident: Ian’s apocalyptic storm surge of …

Continue Reading
Flags - United Nations
Climate Change / President Biden
Posted by:

What to Expect at The Upcoming COP27 U.N. Climate Conference

Due to increasing droughts, wildfires, flooding, and more severe storms, most of the scientific community and political leaders around the world agree that climate change is a real and significant threat facing this planet requiring more action to be taken sooner rather than later to address.

Those that share this assessment also agree that it cannot be left up to just one nation to stifle further climate change. In an effort to foster international cooperation, every year since 1995, a large-scale global event takes place …

Continue Reading
EPA / PFOA / PFOS
Posted by:

WHO Draft Drinking Water Guidance on PFOA and PFOS Raises Material Differences With U.S. EPA Guidance

The World Health Organization recently released for public comment its first document evaluating PFAS: “PFOS and PFOA in Drinking-water, Background document for development of WHO Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality.” According to WHO, one of its primary goals is that “all people, whatever their stage of development and their social and economic conditions, have the right to have access to an adequate supply of safe drinking water.” One function that WHO exercises to achieve that goal is the proposal of regulations, and “to make recommendations with …

Continue Reading
Filling glass of water from the tap
EPA / Mississippi
Posted by:

EPA Launches Civil Rights Investigation for Jackson, Mississippi’s Ongoing Water Crisis

The Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) accepted for investigation an administrative complaint filed against the Mississippi Department of Health (MDH) and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) based on their role in the City of Jackson, Mississippi’s ongoing water crisis. This is an investigation opened by the EPA’s new Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights (“OEJECR.”). The agency announced on Thursday October 20, 2022, that it will investigate whether MDEQ and MDA discriminated against Jackson’s mostly Black population by refusing to provide funding for much needed repairs to Jackson’s water infrastructure. 

For those not aware, Mississippi’s …

Continue Reading
EPA Offices, Washington DC
EPA / Litigation
Posted by:

Federal Lawsuit claims the US EPA has become ‘inert’ when it comes to judging pesticide ingredients

Last week, four environmental groups sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failing  to assess the hard-data consequences of pesticides in its approval process. 

 Back in 1987, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) created lists of pesticides, dividing inert ingredients into four categories based on their toxicological concern; List 1-Inerts of toxicological concern, List 2-Potentially toxic inerts/high priority for testing, List 3-Inerts of unknown toxicity, and List 4-Inerts of minimal concern. 

 Despite this list clearly demonstrating that the EPA has been aware—for decades—of the potential for …

Continue Reading
Massive California Wild Fire forcing thousands of people to evacuate their homes, wildfires spreading rapidly, escaping to save their lives, destroyed silhouette, natural calamity
Legislation
Posted by:

Politics Threaten Passage Of Wildfire Mitigation Bills

Lawmakers from both parties, in both houses of Congress, have proposed bills intended to speed up forest-management projects that reduce wildfire fuels, like brush and small trees, which can cause large-scale fires of the sort seen in Western states over the past few years.  The House has already passed the Wildfire Response and Drought Resiliency Act (“WRDRA”), a package of 49 bills that, among other things, will provide investments to improve fire-adapted ecosystems, protect communities against catastrophic wildfires, and enhance drought resiliency.  The Senate, on …

Continue Reading
EPA
Posted by:

The EPA Flexes Creating a New and Robust Office Dedicated To Sanctioning Environmental Justice

As a follow up to one of our team’s ELM articles earlier this month, (here), the EPA launched a brand-new environmental justice office signaling, for the first time, that clean air, clean water, and environmental justice are a birthright to be protected by the federal government- regardless of privilege, socio-economic status, or geographic location. During his announcement of the groundbreaking initiative, Agency Administrator Michael Regan was anything but ambivalent about the EPA’s latest regime stating very clearly that by nature of its creation the …

Continue Reading
Clean Water Act / EPA
Posted by:

The Clean Water Act’s Not So Clean Application in Close Cases

Just last week, on October 3, 2022, Sackett v. EPA found itself once again before the U.S. Supreme Court for oral arguments, its first appearance at SCOTUS having been a decade before. In January 2022, when the Supreme Court agreed to hear Sackett for a second time following remand, the petitioner Sacketts had amended their complaint in order to challenge the subject compliance order issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency prohibiting the Sacketts from modifying the wetlands on their property on the basis that …

Continue Reading
Climate Change / Emissions
Posted by:

Oil Field Flares Release Much More Methane Emissions Than Previously Thought, A New Study Shows

Oil and gas manufacturers have long relied on a process known as “flaring” to limit the venting of natural gas from their refineries. Specifically, flaring is the process of burning natural gas escaping from oil and gas wells and aims at combusting the powerful greenhouse gas methane to minimize its emission. Flares are designed to eliminate 98% of the methane that passes through them, and that is the standard amount used when calculating the emissions they create. Burning methane through flaring as it is released thereby converts it to …

Continue Reading
Emerging Issues / EPA
Posted by:

EPA Establishes Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights

On September 24, 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency announced the establishment of a new office dedicated to advancing civil rights and environmental justice. The Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights (OEJECR) was created through the merger of three existing internal programs: the Office of Environmental Justice, the External Civil Rights Compliance Office, and the Conflict Prevention and Resolution Center. The OEJECR will oversee the delivery of over $3 billion in grants to assist communities that are adversely impacted by environmental challenges such as …

Continue Reading