On January 15, 2026, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published the long-awaited proposed rule Updating the Water Quality Certification Regulations (Proposed Rule), which, if adopted, would largely reinstate the previous Trump administration’s 2020 Clean Water Act Section 401 Certification Rule (2020 Rule). EPA’s proposal seeks to limit the scope of state-issued water quality certifications (WQCs) under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act (CWA) to water quality impacts associated with discharges authorized by federal agency actions. The Proposed Rule also addresses concerns raised by applicants for federal licenses and permits (including for hydroelectric projects, natural gas pipelines, and other energy and infrastructure projects) that certain states have overstepped their Section 401 authority to impose onerous terms and conditions unrelated to water quality and artificially extended the statutory time limits for issuing WQCs.

Aerial Drone View Wind Turbine

Since its inauguration in January 2025, this federal administration has been engaged in a broad effort to change course on many fronts, including environmental and energy policy. Two district court decisions and a decision by the Secretary of the Interior involving development of offshore wind energy provide an opportunity to consider whether any law constrains agency discretion to implement a new administration’s policies, even when that would involve a reversal of prior decision making.…

Echoing recent rulings from the District Court for the District of Columbia, on January 16, 2026, the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia granted Dominion Energy’s request for a preliminary injunction, lifting the Trump administration’s suspension of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. Earlier that same week, two other judges in same district…

The laudable efforts of the Legislature in adopting “super statutes” such as the Housing Accountability Act (“HAA”; Gov. Code, § 65589.5) notwithstanding, housing in California remains a scarce and precious commodity.  The interplay of the HAA with another “super statute” – CEQA (Pub. Resources Code, § 21000 et seq.) – also continues to be the subject of interesting and important litigation in which the core objectives and provisions of these two statutory schemes clash and must be reconciled.  The First District Court of Appeal’s mostly published 36-page opinion in Coalition of Pacificans for an Updated Plan v. City Council of the City of Pacifica (2025) 117 Cal.App.5th 647, filed on December 30, 2025, deals with the immediate economic fallout from such a clash; the context of the decision was the parties’ post-judgment battle over attorneys’ fees in a case where the CEQA plaintiff prevailed in challenging the HAA-protected housing development approvals for a small infill project in a physically challenging location.  While the City and housing developer prevailed in their appeal of an adverse fee award, their victory might be short-lived or of limited impact in light of the narrow grounds on which the Court of Appeal reversed, and the significant discretion the trial court still retains in reconsidering the fee award on remand.  Thus, in one of the opinion’s many ironies, the case could actually represent a setback for those seeking to use the protections of the HAA to defend housing projects from being sued, and to protect local agencies and developers from hefty fee awards when such suits are successful.

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Governor Pritzker signed the Illinois Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act into law on January 8, 2026 (Public Act 104-0458). The act has far reaching energy supply, grid regulation and infrastructure development provisions, which will accelerate the state’s clean energy transition, improve grid stability and help manage rising electricity demands.

Following the completion of briefing in the challenge to EPA’s rule designating PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), oral argument has been scheduled for Tuesday, January 20, 2026. 

On January 7, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit granted Respondent-Intervenors’ unopposed motion setting…

Following up on our previous update, the lawsuit brought by utilities challenging Maximum Contaminant Levels (“MCLs”) for PFAS in drinking water is scheduled for oral argument on Tuesday, January 20, 2026. 

On January 7, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit granted Respondent-Intervenors’ unopposed motion setting the format for the oral-argument.  Under…