To respond effectively to climate change, local, state, and federal governments should adopt complementary policies, but that’s much easier said than done. A case in point is the drive to reduce emissions from the building sector, which accounts for nearly 30% of U.S. emissions despite substantial improvements in energy efficiency.
In recent years, some
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Appeals Court Divests Conservation Commissions’ Wetlands Jurisdiction After Missed Deadline
On January 26, the Massachusetts Appeals Court issued a decision in Boston Clear Water Company, LLC v. Town of Lynnfield, finding a Conservation Commission lost jurisdiction over a project before its’ review even began. The case reaffirmed the Appeals Court’s 2007 holding in Oyster Creek Preservation Inc v. Harwich: a commission can lose
Biden-Harris Administration Proposes NEPA Regulatory Revisions
After nearly 50 years with little change, the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) regulations are facing their second substantive revisions in less than 12 months.[1] In September 2020, the Trump Administration oversaw a series of regulatory revisions that greatly altered the scope and depth of the review processes under NEPA by reducing the types
Federal PFAS Cleanup Regulation on the Horizon
Federal regulators recently picked up the pace in controlling the class of persistent environmental toxins known as PFAS, as the nation’s eyes increasingly focus on this problem. Local governments, airports, and potentially responsible parties should pay particularly close attention to these developments.
On October 25, the EPA announced plans to add four types of Per-
Supreme Court Creates New “Functional Equivalent” Test for Groundwater Discharges
Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay.
Wading into a dispute about the Clean Water Act’s applicability to groundwater discharges, the Supreme Court handed environmentalists a somewhat surprising victory in County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund. However, the lower courts, EPA, and the regulated community will have many opportunities to shape the significance of the
How COVID-19 is Affecting Environmental Permitting
As government agencies at every level continue to implement programs to combat the spread of the Coronavirus, many environmental practitioners are struggling to make sense of what this means for their environmental permitting timelines. Below, we have compiled an overview of the main federal, state, and local changes that are likely to impact environmental permitting
Massachusetts and Federal Updates on PFAS Regulation
Image by Baudolino from Pixabay
On February 20, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it would begin a regulatory determination process aimed at deciding “whether or not to begin the process to propose and promulgate a national primary drinking water regulation” for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS. PFAS encompasses a large
NEGPA v. DEP: The SJC Upholds the Commonwealth’s Climate Change Mitigation Program
This article was first published in the Winter 2019 edition of the Boston Bar Journal.
In a unanimous decision last September, the Supreme Judicial Court (“SJC”) upheld the Commonwealth’s latest climate change regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from electric generators, rejecting those generators’ arguments that the regulations violate the Massachusetts Global Warming Solutions
Interstate Water Dispute Nears Decision by Supreme Court
As our changing climate threatens to exacerbate drought conditions in parts of the country, disputes between states over rights to water are likely to become far more common, and to have far higher stakes. Early this year, the Court heard arguments in two separate water apportionment cases—one involving a dispute between Texas and New Mexico
Agencies Gearing Up to Address Risks Posed by PFAS Contamination
image credit: Ineke Huizing
PFAS—a class of chemical substances commonly used in a wide range of products—are drawing increased scrutiny from regulators. Businesses and municipalities should closely follow these developments, as they create both new risks of liability for substantial response costs and opportunities to make gains on environmental quality.
Short for “per- and polyfluoroalkyl
