President Trump’s energy-focused ambitions will generate work for regulators at all levels of the government....more
4/17/2025
/ Climate Change ,
Coal Industry ,
Energy Policy ,
Energy Sector ,
Executive Orders ,
FERC ,
Fossil Fuel ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Renewable Energy ,
State and Local Government ,
Trump Administration
The full scope of the Trump Administration’s deregulatory efforts in the environmental space was recently made clear with a series of announcements from US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin....more
The first weeks of the Trump Administration have been defined by executive orders and new policies that were immediately challenged on constitutional or statutory grounds....more
A Biden-era US Department of Labor (DOL) Rule permitting consideration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors when choosing investments as a “tiebreaker” was recently upheld by Texas federal Judge Matthew...more
The Trump Administration is beginning to roll out its policy plans to “dominate” the global energy space. These plans tackle energy transition issues in a dramatically different manner than did the Biden Administration,...more
In the environmental space, 2024 has been a memorable year with regulatory efforts and court decisions touching on every aspect of environmental and energy regulation, capped out by a closely divided election....more
12/24/2024
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Chevron Deference ,
Chevron v NRDC ,
Citizen Suits ,
Clean Air Act ,
Climate Change ,
Coal Industry ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Justice ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo ,
PFAS ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Reporting Requirements ,
SCOTUS ,
Spokeo v Robins ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
TransUnion LLC v Ramirez
Come September in a presidential election year, the policy world feels like a “winner take all” scenario with the election’s outcome determining how — or this year whether — we are regulated. While, of course, the election...more
9/12/2024
/ Administrative Interpretation ,
Chevron Deference ,
Corner Post Inc v Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
FERC ,
Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo ,
Popular ,
Presidential Elections ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Sustainability
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has just announced an eight-month postponement of the start of a major reporting requirement for past use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in consumer products due to...more
Often motivated by the lack of federal engagement on environmental issues, various states have evaluated adding “Green Amendments” to their state constitutions. The practical impact of these amendments will be borne out as...more
Discussion of administrative law usually doesn’t happen at the dinner table. But a series of recent US Supreme Court decisions may have changed this introducing talk of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and the...more
7/15/2024
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v Food and Drug Administration ,
Chevron Deference ,
Corner Post Inc v Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo ,
Ohio v Environmental Protection Agency ,
Public Trust Doctrine ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Sackett v EPA ,
SCOTUS ,
SEC v Jarkesy ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Statutory Interpretation
On the second-to-last day of its term, the US Supreme Court issued its decisions in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless, Inc. v. Dep’t of Commerce. These decisions overruled Chevron USA. v. National Resource...more
7/2/2024
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Chevron Deference ,
Chevron v NRDC ,
Clean Air Act ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Government Agencies ,
Judicial Authority ,
Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo ,
National Marine Fisheries Service ,
Regulatory Authority ,
SCOTUS ,
SEC v Jarkesy ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
West Virginia v EPA
Juliana v. United States — brought by 21 children against the United States and alleging that the government has failed to adequately respond to climate change — has ping-ponged through the federal court system since...more
Policy debates normally focus on substance. Is climate change real? How can business entities weigh environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into their decision-making?
...more
3/25/2024
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Appeals ,
Biden Administration ,
Climate Change ,
Declaratory Judgments ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Injunctions ,
New Rules ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Supremacy Clause
Climate change litigation continues in the headlines, this time with an Oregon federal court evaluating claims by 21 children that the federal government violated their constitutional right to a habitable environment.
In...more
The US Supreme Court has announced it will evaluate whether “impact fees” associated with permits can violate the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution. At stake is the determination of when, how, and under what...more
10/26/2023
/ Appeals ,
Compensation ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Fees ,
Fifth Amendment ,
George Sheetz v County of El Dorado ,
Impact Fees ,
Koontz v St John's River Water Management ,
Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo ,
Permits ,
Regulatory Takings ,
Relentless Inc v US Department of Commerce ,
SCOTUS
This US Supreme Court’s administrative and environmental decisions were somewhat predictable for much of the 2022-2023 term. And then they weren’t – the final weeks of the term especially featured some high-drama decisions....more
7/13/2023
/ 303 Creative LLC v Elenis ,
Affirmative Action ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Clean Water Act ,
Department of Education v Brown ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Haaland v Brackeen ,
Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA) ,
Loan Forgiveness ,
NEPA ,
Notice of Violation ,
Rapanos v US ,
Sackett v EPA ,
SCOTUS ,
Student Loans ,
Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard College ,
Students for Fair Admissions v University of North Carolina ,
Title VI ,
Waters of the United States ,
Wetlands
Last week, the US Supreme Court ruled that the Biden Administration’s efforts to cancel $430 billion in student loan balances was legally unsupportable.
Forty-three million Americans will remember Biden v. Nebraska when...more
7/10/2023
/ Biden Administration ,
Debt Relief ,
Department of Education ,
Department of Education v Brown ,
Haaland v Brackeen ,
Loan Forgiveness ,
OSHA ,
SCOTUS ,
Secretary of Education ,
Standing ,
Student Loans ,
West Virginia v EPA
In a closely watched environmental Clean Water Act (CWA) case, the US Supreme Court adopted a far narrower construction of CWA’s definition of “waters of the United States,” functionally shifting significant authority over...more
On December 15, the White House added a new Guidebook to the Inflation Reduction Act to its clean energy webpage. The Guidebook is a valuable resource to help businesses, organizations, and individuals secure access to the...more
“Administrative deference” is a key component to the modern regulatory state. The “Chevron doctrine,” i.e., the concept that the courts should defer to relevant agencies’ interpretations of ambiguous statutes they are tasked...more
In a recent US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) letter issued to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) and the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH), the Biden Administration deploys its plans to use...more
10/26/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
CERCLA ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Clean Air Act ,
Clean Water Act ,
Department of Environmental Quality ,
Environmental Justice ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Investigations ,
Louisiana ,
NAAQS ,
Regulatory Oversight
The first Monday of October means the Supreme Court begins to hear cases for the new term. As we promised at the end of last term, below we summarize cases the Court could address, including issues involving the federal Clean...more
10/3/2022
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Anti-Commandeering ,
Biden v Missouri ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Clean Water Act ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ,
Rapanos v US ,
Sackett ,
SCOTUS ,
Spending Clause ,
Tenth Amendment ,
Texas v US ,
Waters of the United States
In a new report issued September 8, the US Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) outlines the environmental and energy impacts of cryptocurrencies and digital assets and calls for the development of federal and state...more
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA), has several primary goals, including: promoting clean energy, manufacturing, and construction through a wide array of tax incentives and grants; raising revenue through the primary...more
US Senate Democrats Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin reached a compromise on the fiscal year 2022 budget reconciliation that includes $369 billion in new spending to spur clean energy and technology over the next decade. The...more