While Americans witnessed three straight presidential debates with little meaningful discussion about climate change, the rest of the world has been busy chipping away at climate change issues one at a time. In fact, just in the last month we saw four major developments: (1) Canada implemented a carbon tax; (2) the Paris climate agreement officially went into effect; (3) the Carbon Offset and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (“CORSIA”) was signed by 191 countries requiring airline operators to purchase carbon offsets; and (4) 197 countries agreed to phase out hydrofluorocarbons (“HFCs”), an extremely potent greenhouse gas used in air conditioners.

What was recently a hot topic within the regulatory community, conversations about Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) and Mine Safety & Health Administration (MSHA) whistleblower, retaliation, and discrimination claims have seemingly fallen by the wayside.  But don’t be fooled.  Two recent developments demonstrate that these US Department of Labor agencies continue to find novel ways to protect our nation’s workers when they raise safety, health, or other legal compliance concerns in the workplace. These include: (1) OSHA’s expedited determination Pilot Program; and (2) MSHA’s increased focus on “interference” claims.

In 2005, the US Supreme Court held in Kelo v. City of New London that the city of New London, Connecticut could condemn 15 residential properties for a “public use” that entailed transferring the property to a new private owner.  The majority opinion backstopped its expansive definition of “public use” by emphasizing that “nothing in [its] opinion precludes any State from placing further restrictions on its exercise of the takings power.”  In the resulting backlash, many states bolstered protections for property rights against government use of eminent domain.

New battles over eminent domain are bringing property owners and environmental activists together again.  Last year, energy infrastructure company Kinder Morgan revealed its plan to construct a pipeline through parts of Georgia and South Carolina.  In March, the company announced that it had suspended construction on the project after the Georgia legislature passed legislation placing a moratorium on pipeline construction.  Georgia’s legislature declared:

Yesterday, U.S. EPA announced a new Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) retail strategy.  This strategy has been long-awaited, given that it has been well over two years since the retail industry commented on EPA’s February 14, 2014 Notice of Data Availability for the Retail Sector (20 Fed. Reg. 8926).  After last year’s release of the proposed Hazardous Waste Generator Improvements Rule and Management Standards for Hazardous Waste Pharmaceuticals rule, the industry was unclear whether and to what degree EPA would turn back to a potential sector-specific rulemaking.  Yesterday’s release of EPA’s retail strategy, however, confirms that EPA intends to use policy, guidance and rulemaking to fashion a remedy.

Historically, the Benefits Coordination and Recovery Center (“BCRC”) arm of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) collected Medicare’s conditional payments.  While the BCRC continues to address Medicare’s reimbursement rights with Medicare beneficiaries, in late 2015 the CMS’s Commercial Repayment Center (“CRC”) took over responsibility for seeking reimbursement directly from Applicable Plans.  Applicable Plans…