In accordance with its initiatives under the European Green Deal, the Commission is currently seeking public feedback on both its proposed update to the EU Industrial Emissions Directive (‘IED’) and for the proposed implementation of the EU Zero Pollution Action Plan.

Introduced in 2019, the European Green Deal sets out the Commission’s ambitious strategy to addressing climate-related and environmental challenges across various industry sectors. Amongst other things, it commits the EU to revising existing measures to address pollution from large industrial installations, to ensure EU permitting laws are consistent with EU policies on climate, energy and circular economy. The EU is also committing to adopt a zero pollution action plan to meet the Commission’s zero pollution ambition.

Alongside the Zero Pollution Action Plan and the revision of measures to address pollution from large industrial installations, the third headline action on zero pollution is the chemical strategy for sustainability (published in October 2020). The publication of the chemical strategy was the first step towards achieving what the EU terms a ‘toxic-free environment’. The EU strategies on biodiversity, climate neutrality, and Farm to Fork are also key in achieving the zero pollution ambitions under the European Green Deal.

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With the change in administration in Washington, D.C., President Biden elevated Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) Commissioner Richard Glick to the position of Chairman. A Democrat, Commissioner Glick now assumes certain agenda-setting powers, including directing ongoing lawsuits at FERC and setting policy priorities. Two policies of note are transmission build-out and carbon pricing approval –…

At its January 20, 2021 Board meeting, the State Water Resources Control Board (“SWRCB” or “Board”) adopted its final General Waste Discharge Requirements (“WDRs”) for Winery Process Water (“Winery Order”) and associated Resolution for the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) Mitigated Negative Declaration.

As a brief background, on July 3, 2020 the SWRCB released a draft Winery Order to the public for comment (see: July 15, 2020 blogpost on proposed General Order and July 20, 2020 blogpost on noticed stakeholder meetings).  The July 3, 2020 draft incorporated feedback from stakeholders regarding administrative draft documents circulated in 2019.  On November 12, 2020 we posted an Update to our prior blog article regarding the SWRCB’s issuance of a revised notice rescheduling the date of its November 17, 2020 Board meeting to December 15, 2020.  Since that time, on December 2, 2020, Board staff publicly transmitted a revised draft Winery Order and draft CEQA Initial Study and Mitigated Negative Declaration. Notable revisions in the December 2, 2020 iteration of the draft Winery Order were made in response to comments received and include changes to design flow ranges used to determine tier designations for coverage under the Winery Order and technical requirements related thereto, among other changes.

Under the Biden administration, the U.S. Department of Transportation is likely to be more active in setting federal standards for vehicle safety, fuel economy and emissions, and to return to more robust safety enforcement, so automakers should update compliance programs and foster constructive relationships with regulators, write Patricia Doersch in this January 25, 2021, article…

environmental-law

A recent poll, conducted by the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, found that interest in ESG ratings—that is, an organization’s performance on environmental, social, and governance measures—is rising among asset managers and the broader financial community against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Increasingly, even entities outside the financial sector—particularly those in…

On Thursday, January 21, President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order that directed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to issue guidance to employers on protecting workers from COVID-19, including protecting workers from COVID-19 under the Occupational Safety and Health Act and protecting other categories of workers from COVID-19.  In this alert we outline…

In 2019, the D.C. Circuit in Hoopa Valley Tribe v. FERC  held that the plain language of Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 401 establishes a bright-line maximum period of one year for States to act on a request for water quality certification and that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) was arbitrary and capricious when it failed to enforce the statutory time-limit.  Since the Hoopa Valley Tribe ruling, the Commission has repeatedly held that a State waives its authority under Section 401 when it has sought to extend the one year review period by requesting or directing the applicant to withdraw and resubmit its application to afford the state reviewing agency more time.  In several recent cases, however, the Commission has found that there may be instances where a withdrawal and resubmission of a water quality certification by the applicant does not result in a State’s waiver of Section 401 certification authority.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has issued an order proposing a $15 million civil penalty in response to the failure of a licensee to respond to FERC dam safety orders in the wake of the failure of the Edenville dam and downstream FERC-licensed Sanford Dam (Project No. 2785) in Michigan in May 2020 (see June 1, 2020 edition of the WER).  The December 9, 2020 Order to Show Cause and Notice of Proposed Penalty followed months of FERC orders and directives to the licensee related to the catastrophic failure of the two dams, which resulted in the evacuation of 10,000 people, an estimated $190 million in economic damages to local residents, and $55 million in response costs, prompting Governor Gretchen Whitmer to request a disaster declaration from the federal government.