In a long-awaited decision about whether Happy the Elephant could be designated a person for the purposes of a writ of habeas corpus, the Court of Appeals of the State of New York has spoken. In a word—no. Specifically, the Court held that “[b]ecause the writ of habeas corpus is intended to protect the liberty
June 2022
EPA Reduces the Drinking Water Health Advisory Levels for PFOA and PFOS by 3 Orders of Magnitude
EPA today released updated interim drinking water health advisories for PFOA and PFOS. The health advisory level was previously 70 ppt (parts per trillion) for the total of PFOA and PFOS. The updated interim health advisory levels are now 0.004 ppt for PFOA and 0.020 ppt for PFOS, three orders of magnitude lower. EPA’s health…
Parts Per Trillion, We Hardly Knew Ye; Sell Hello to Parts Per Quadrillion
By Seth Jaffe
Just when we environmental old-timers were just getting used to talk about PFAS concentrations in the low parts per trillion range, EPA has moved us squarely into uncharted territory. EPA has released new, interim, lifetime drinking water health advisories of 4 parts per quadrillion for PFOA and 20 parts per quadrillion for PFOS. I’ll just…
Energy & Climate CounselFoley Hoag LLP The Battle Over California’s Authority to Set Vehicle Emission Standards Continues
EPA, States, and the auto industry are again ratcheting up the battle over California’s authority to set vehicle GHG and Zero Emission Vehicles program.
The Clean Air Act generally prohibits a state from adopting its own motor vehicle emission standards. However, since its inception, the CAA granted California the authority to request a waiver of…
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—Week Ending June 10, 2022
Avian Influenza: New Commercial HPAI Detections Plummet Nationally
As of June 13, 2022, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)’s HPAI 2022 Confirmed Detections database confirmed a total of 369 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) detections in 36 states (186 commercial flocks and 183 backyard flocks), resulting in 40.09…
Conservation Group Efforts Seeking Greater Protection of River Herring Denied
On March 31, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia denied an appeal filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and other conservation groups seeking to overturn a National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) decision not to protect two types of river herring, alewife, and blueback herring under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).…
FWS Proposes to Account for Climate Change When Designating Experimental Populations
On June 7, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) issued a proposed rule titled, “Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Designation of Experimental Populations.” In issuing the proposed rule, FWS re-affirms its authority to designate and introduce experimental populations of protected species into areas of habitat outside of their historical range when climate change,…
Biden Administration Releases “Phase 1” of NEPA Revisions
On April 20, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) issued a Final Rule, revising certain sections of its regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The Final Rule represents “Phase 1” of the Biden administration’s plan to reverse the Trump-era rulemaking, which significantly revised the NEPA regulations for the first time since 1978.…
New Bureau of Land Management Guidance on Geologic Carbon Sequestration on Federal Public Lands Answers Some Questions, But Uncertainty Remains for Split-Estate Lands
By Chris Colyer
On June 8, 2022, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued formal guidance[1] describing BLM’s policy for authorizing use of federal public lands for site characterization, injection, and geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide (CO2) for carbon capture and storage (CCS). BLM Instruction Memorandum 2022-041 (IM…
The European Union Adopted New Rules for the Trans-European Networks for Energy
On 30 May 2022, the European Union (“EU”) adopted the revised Regulation on guidelines for trans-European energy infrastructure (No. 2022/869) (the “TEN-E Regulation 2022”), which replaces the previous rules laid down in Regulation No. 347/2013 (the “TEN-E Regulation 2013”) that aimed to improve security of supply, market integration, competition and sustainability in the energy sector.…