On-Demand Webinar | The New NEPA Regulations: A Practical Guide to What You Need to Know
The Supreme Court’s judgment in R(Finch) v Surrey County Council [2024] UKSC 20 has potentially significant implications on how environmental impacts of major projects are assessed. The question at the heart of the case was...more
Twenty Attorneys General (including Arkansas) filed a judicial challenge on May 21st in the United States District Court for the District of North Dakota to the Council on Environmental Quality (“CEQ”) rule styled: ...more
Introduction On May 1, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (“CEQ”) published its Final Rule implementing revisions to the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”)—better known as Phase 2 (the “Final Rule”)....more
In Citizens for Clean Air & Clean Water in Brazoria County et al v. United States Department of Transportation et al., several environmental groups challenged the DOT’s approval of a license for commercial construction and...more
Based on immediate reactions to the long-awaited final "Phase II" NEPA regulations, one might think that the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) substantially altered long-standing federal environmental review practice....more
On May 1, 2024, the Council on Environmental Quality (“CEQ”) promulgated the Bipartisan Permitting Reform Implementation Rule (“Final Rule”), 89 Fed. Reg. 35,442 (May 1, 2024), which is better known as Phase 2 of the Biden...more
Massachusetts has become the first state to require analysis of cumulative impacts for certain air quality permits in or near communities with environmental justice (EJ) populations. On March 29, 2024, the Massachusetts...more
On October 7, 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1305 into law, also known as the “Voluntary Market Disclosures Business Regulation Act,” or AB 1305. This law marks the first of its kind in the...more
Last week, an interesting lawsuit was filed in Boston with a distinctly and perhaps ironic environmental justice flavor. A non-profit, the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, along with fifteen Boston residents, brought suit to...more
Sustainability is becoming an increasingly important factor in consumers’ purchasing decisions. According to a 2022 report released by First Insight and the Baker Retailing Center at the Wharton School of the University of...more
On August 22, 2023, a split panel of the Michigan Court of Appeals held that the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) violated the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) by promulgating a new rule...more
On August 10, 2023, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) proposed to substantially revise regulations aimed at accelerating the Federal environmental review and permitting processes associated with the development of onshore...more
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was signed into law on January 1, 1970, and it has rarely been amended or revised since then. NEPA is basically a procedural statute which requires Federal permitting authorities,...more
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) anticipates releasing the Draft Designation Documents for the proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary. A draft proposed rule and management plan for...more
On June 3, 2023, President Biden signed the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 (“FRA”) into law, extending the U.S. debt limit into 2025. As part of the Congressional deal, FRA also contains amendments to the National...more
On June 3, 2023, President Biden signed into law the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 (“the Act”), which includes modest changes to the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”), among other things. The Act amends NEPA in...more
Hiding in plain sight in the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 (FRA)--which is intended to extend the nation’s debt limit into 2025 in order to avoid a federal default--are provisions that seek to amend the National...more
In 2020, New Jersey enacted a first-of-its-kind environmental justice statute, the Environmental Justice Law (EJ Law). The EJ Law requires that permit applicants for certain water, waste, and air facilities located, wholly or...more
The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) recently issued interim “National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Guidance on Consideration of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions and Climate Change” (the “Interim Guidance”) to assist...more
On the final day of 2022, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed into law the Cumulative Impacts Bill (CIB), which both houses of New York State’s legislature had passed eight months earlier in the year (language here: S.8830 and...more
The proposed demolition of Marks and Spencer’s flagship Oxford Street store has received widespread attention, and not for the reasons high profile developments often grab the headlines. In this instance, it is not the design...more
On April 20, 2022, the Council on Environmental Quality (“CEQ”) published a final rule revising the primary regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”). The final rule largely restored provisions...more
Spanning over 300 pages, the new environmental protection legislation includes fundamental changes in how projects are evaluated by the authorities for environmental approval, permitting mechanisms and more stringent...more
First, the Commission voted to not conduct a formal rulemaking on the NRC’s current environmental review process under 10 CFR Part 51. Separately, the staff proposed alternative timelines for a rulemaking to revise the...more
On April 19, 2022, the Biden administration finalized a new rule (“Final Rule”) rolling back the Trump administration’s 2020 changes limiting the scope of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The Final Rule...more