It has been just over one month since President Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States, and he is delivering on his promise to move quickly. Biden has signed more executive orders in his first 30 days than any president in U.S. history. Perhaps another record-breaking instance is the proportion of these actions that relate to energy and environmental policies.
The Indiana Senate has passed controversial legislation that would repeal state oversight of wetlands. Some lawmakers in both parties, however, said the law goes too far and would interfere with regulatory or judicial review of multiple pending cases.
President-elect Joe Biden on Friday tapped Janet McCabe, an environmental law and policy expert and Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law professor, to return to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as deputy administrator.
The Trump administration has used many tools to weaken environmental protection. For example, Trump issued an executive order in June 2020 to waive environmental review for infrastructure projects such as pipelines and highways. I expect the Biden administration will quickly signal to the nation that effectively applying the nation’s environmental laws matters to everyone – especially to communities that bear an unfair share of the public health burden of pollution.
Down to its final weeks, the Trump administration is working to push through dozens of environmental rollbacks that could weaken century-old protections for migratory birds, expand Arctic drilling and hamstring future regulation of public health threats.
Buying commercial real estate requires special attention to potential environmental problems and the laws that regulate them. A lawyer advising a buyer of commercial real estate must identify and resolve existing or potential environmental problems or risk an unhappy client.
For the last 50 years, Americans have had a say in how these projects impacted their neighborhoods through the National Environmental Policy Act. But environmental groups and lawyers have concerns that could change under a new Trump Administration rule set to take effect this week.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) has identified PFAS as an “emerging contaminant.” The agency has released two peer-reviewed documents addressing health impacts posed by the chemicals. EPA also listed PFOA and PFOS on its Contaminant Candidate List (CCL) — which means they are now subject to regulatory decision making and information collection.
On June 22, the Trump administration’s new Navigable Waters Protection Rule went into effect and was immediately subject to multiple legal challenges throughout the country. The Navigable Waters Protection Rule is likely to have far-reaching impacts on the development and use of land across the United States.
Indianapolis Power & Light Co. has agreed to pay about $1.5 million in penalties to settle longstanding pollution issues at its huge Petersburg Generating Station.
Six former Environmental Protection Agency chiefs are calling for an agency reset after President Donald Trump’s regulation-chopping, industry-minded first term, backing a detailed plan by former EPA staffers that ranges from renouncing political influence in regulation to boosting climate-friendly electric vehicles.
Environmental tort actions fall under the larger rubric of toxic torts and involve personal injury and property damage claims for releases of environmental contamination. But what happens when, as they often do, the regulatory cleanup takes years or even decades?
Hundreds of families who were unknowingly exposed for years to high levels of lead in Northern Indiana have secured a victory against state and local entities after the Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed the denial of the latter’s motion for judgment on the pleadings.
The federal government is seeking the public’s input on its plan to clean up groundwater contamination at a Superfund site in Indianapolis that’s tainted with chemicals used by a dry cleaning company.
The US Supreme Court ruled Thursday that sewage plants and other industries cannot avoid environmental requirements under landmark clean-water protections when they send dirty water on an indirect route to rivers, oceans and other navigable waterways.
The United States Supreme Court delivered a setback Monday to Montana homeowners who are seeking additional cleanup of arsenic left over from years of copper smelting.
Volkswagen’s recent emissions scandal triggered criminal and civil prosecution by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In 2017, Volkswagen’s estimated cost resulting from the scandal was more than $30 billion, and that number is growing. In the wake of this scandal, the EPA has declared “war” on an entire subindustry — aftermarket parts — and anyone who manufactures, sells or installs devices that allow drivers to tamper with their vehicle emissions.
The Trump administration completed the fewest cleanups of toxic Superfund sites last year than any administration since the program’s first years in the 1980s, figures released by the Environmental Protection Agency indicated Wednesday.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has launched a hazardous waste investigation at a sprawling former oil refinery in northwestern Indiana that was shuttered in 1973 and later was the scene of a major fire.
The leaders of 18 environmental and civic groups have joined a push for U.S. Steel to face tougher penalties over a spill of hazardous substances from a northwestern Indiana plant into Lake Michigan.