As we previously covered in our blog last week, both the Federal and certain State governments are proposing legislation to subsidize or otherwise enhance the use of hydrogen as an alternative fuel to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from selected “hard to abate” industrial sectors such as heavy industry, transportation and marine shipping. Last week’s blog
As economies pivot away from reliance on petroleum, the use of hydrogen is increasingly considered as a key component in a portfolio of alternative fuels and developing technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This is the first of a multi-part blog series on federal and state legislation being considered to stimulate “energy transition.” This blog
The Washington State Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) issued a proposed rule updating process safety management (PSM) standards for petroleum refineries. Washington’s current PSM rule is identical to the federal standard issued by OSHA in 1992 – over 30 years ago. More recently, in late 2017, California revised their regulations on PSM for petroleum
On May 25, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 9-0 decision ending a nearly 16-year battle over the Clean Water Act’s (CWA) applicability to certain wetlands. In a five-justice majority opinion, the Court found that the CWA applies only to wetlands that are “as a practical matter indistinguishable” from “relatively permanent, standing or continuously
When the UK finally left the EU on 31 January 2020, it kept virtually all EU laws on the UK statute book. This was not straightforward and a detailed set of provisions was fought over in the withdrawal agreement with the EU and in the UK’s domestic withdrawal legislation. This left a great deal of
The Biden administration just announced draft regulations that would require most coal-fired and gas power plants to capture and sequester up to 90 percent of their carbon emissions by the middle of the next decade, a move with the potential to transform the U.S. electricity sector and perhaps offer a boost to the fledgling domestic
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently proposed a significant addition to its Renewable Fuel Standards (RFS) program—the renewable electricity RIN (eRIN). The eRIN is a new kind of renewable identification number (RIN) obligated parties could obtain to meet their renewable volume obligations and comply with the RFS program.
Under the current RFS program, obligated
The California Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act (“SB 253”) was recently introduced and passed the state’s Senate Environmental Quality Committee on March 15, 2023. SB 253 aims to broaden Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) state disclosure requirements, targeting high earning companies. A similar emissions disclosure bill, the Climate Corporate Accountability Act, failed to pass the
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently released two memos instructing enforcement officers on “instance-by-instance” citations and de-grouping violations to deter infractions.
OSHA’s prior policy on instance-by-instance citations, published in 1990, applied just to willful citations. The new guidance identifies several scenarios where such citations may be issued, including high-gravity serious violations specific to falls, trenching,
As we previously covered, California has been working towards the development of “green hydrogen,” i.e., hydrogen fuel produced by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using renewable electricity. Most stakeholders acknowledge that green hydrogen is a critical (but predominantly untapped) resource that offers many climate and energy benefits.[1] In a significant step