On Oct. 6, 2021, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) announced Phase 1 of a proposed two-phase rollback of the most significant substantive changes included in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) rule-making finalized by former President Donald Trump’s administration in 2020. Those 2020 changes were the first overhaul of the NEPA regulations
Last week, EPA and the Army Corps proposed a new rule to define what constitutes “waters of the United States.” 
Déjà vu all over again.
Under the proposal, the agencies:
are exercising their discretionary authority to interpret “waters of the United States” to mean the waters defined by the longstanding 1986 regulations, with amendments to
Labeling of meat and poultry products has been the subject of numerous lawsuits, in which labels claiming products are, for example, “natural,” “humanely-raised,” “antibiotic-free,” are alleged to be fraudulent, amongst other allegations. With the expansion of meat and poultry products produced from cultured cells derived from animals instead of the traditional methods of food production
On Oct. 9, 2021, California Gov. Newsom signed into law Assembly Bill 1346, which will require the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to develop regulations to prohibit engine exhaust and emissions from small off-road engines (SORE), such as lawn mowers, portable generators, and the profusion of other equipment utilizing small gasoline engines for power,
Dave Curran, ESG and Law Institute executive director and co-chair of the Paul, Weiss ESG Advisory Practice, and Paul, Weiss executive compensation partner Jean McLoughlin wrote an article published in NACD Private Company Directorship on November 21. The article, “Tying Pre-IPO Compensation to ESG Commitments,” discusses the steps emerging, pre-IPO companies should take to develop
By James L. Curtis, Adam R. Young, Patrick D. Joyce, Daniel R. Birnbaum, and Craig B. Simonsen
Seyfarth Synopsis: The U.S. Department of Labor Tweeted and blogged about the safety of workers during the busy holiday season, indicating an area of potential enforcement for OSHA in the coming weeks.
Unsurprisingly, OSHA
Last week, an intermediate appellate court in Pennsylvania held that a jury properly awarded no compensation for a right to flood a lakefront property by an additional 5.5 feet in a heavy storm. The home on the property sat on a pad at the original elevation, so if all 5.5 feet of flooding were to
EPA final action on ASTM International’s E1527-21 “Standard Practice for Environmental Site Assessments: Phase I Environmental Site Assessment is currently in limbo. On March 14, 2022, after this blog post, EPA took direct final action to amend the Standards and Practices for All Appropriate Inquiries to reference ASTM International’s E1527-21. The rule was to have
As the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (“COP”) in Glasgow has drawn to a close, with seemingly mixed messages and a somewhat ambiguous conclusion, it is worth reflecting on the overall trajectory of the climate issue, societal expectations, and the accomplishments that — with time — Glasgow is likely to represent. COP26
The Louisiana Legislature adopted the Geologic Sequestration of Carbon Dioxide Act in 2009. Recent policy changes at the federal level have drawn increasing attention to the Act’s provisions regarding the permits needed to operate a carbon dioxide storage facility in Louisiana.
The Act grants jurisdiction over the permitting process to the Commissioner of Conservation.[1]