Pesticides/Herbicides: Environmental Groups Challenge EPA’s Registration of Enlist One and Enlist Duo
On June 6, 2023, the Center for Food Safety and two other advocacy groups filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeking injunctive and declaratory relief against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) registration decision for Enlist…

State Regulation: PA District Court Finds NGA Does Not Preempt State Administrative Review of Environmental Permits
On Monday, June 5, 2023, the District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania filed a memorandum opinion in the case of Transcon. Gas Pipe Line Co., LLC v. Pa. Env’t Hearing Bd. denying Plaintiff Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line…

Municipal Regulation: Berkeley Petitions for Rehearing of Ninth Circuit’s Decision Striking Down Natural Gas Piping Prohibition
On May 31, 2023, the City of Berkeley, California, filed a petition requesting a rehearing en banc after an  April 17th opinion in which the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found that a city may not ban the installation…

International Trade: U.S. Initiates USMCA Dispute Settlement Consultations with Mexico on GMO Corn Ban
On June 2, 2023, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced that the United States has requested dispute settlement consultations with Mexico under Articles 31.2 and 31.4 of the United States-Mexico-Canada-Agreement (USMCA) concerning Mexico’s prohibition on the import of…

Farmland Preservation: Appraiser Pleads Guilty to Agricultural Conservation Easement Fraud
On May 12, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that a North Carolina land appraiser, Walter “Terry” Douglas Roberts II, pleaded guilty to fraudulently inflating the value of at least eighteen agricultural conservation easements “by at least 70%,” allowing landowners to claim fraudulent…

State Regulation:  Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission Proposes Amendments to Low-Income Usage Reduction Program Regulations
On Thursday, May 18, 2023, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) adopted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposing amendments to the Low-Income Usage Reduction Program (LIURP) regulations.  LIURP regulations apply to natural gas distribution companies and electric distribution companies that are…

Water Quality:  U.S. Supreme Court Provides Definitive Clarity to Definition of Waters of the United States (WOTUS)
On May 25, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision in the case of Sackett v. EPA, et al., No. 21-454, reversing and remanding the decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and stating, “[W]e…