Environmental Law & Policy Monitor

Analysis and commentary on developments in environmental and natural resources law

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By: Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP

Latest from Environmental Law & Policy Monitor - Page 4

On the evening of April 9, 2025, the Trump administration released a pair of deregulatory executive actions that could have major implications for any industry subject to federal rules — and are also likely to be a magnet for litigation. These orders come fast on the heels of an April 8 executive order, “Protecting…

In what should be welcome news to industry and others who generate hazardous waste in California (including contaminated soil), the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA), through the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), released a Draft Hazardous Waste Management Plan: A Modern Approach to a Circular Economy (Plan) on March 15. As provided…

UPDATE

On February 19, the White House unveiled an interim final rule (IFR) to rescind all National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) implementing regulations that the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) has promulgated since 1977. The IFR takes effect immediately and bypasses the usual public notice and comment process for rulemakings by invoking the “good cause”…

Background

Port Arthur Community Action Network (PACAN) v. Texas Commission on Environmental Quality et al. (Tex. Feb. 14, 2025) presented the Texas Supreme Court with a unique opportunity to provide defined guideposts to understand just what is “best available control technology” or “BACT” for the purposes of Texas air permitting.…

Effective February 3, 2025, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) adopted amendments to the Ground Water Quality Standards (GWQS), N.J.A.C. 7:9C. The amendments updated the groundwater quality criteria and/or practical quantitation levels (PQLs) for 73 constituents, the vast majority of which became more stringent. For example, groundwater quality standards for tetrachloroethylene (PCE) and…

President Trump hit the ground running, issuing more executive orders, memoranda, and other actions on Inauguration Day than any previous president. Agencies are already working to implement those actions. Many of the actions are interrelated, so Troutman Pepper Locke’s Environmental + Natural Resources team has put together the following resource to help assess the impact…

Companies following the ongoing legal challenge to California’s climate disclosure laws in hopes that the court would strike down or limit the scope of these laws will be disappointed by the order issued by the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on February 3, 2025. The order dismissed constitutional challenges levied against…

This past Monday, the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota issued its ruling in the closely watched case of Iowa v. Council on Envtl. Quality, 1:24-cv-089 (D.N.D. Feb. 3, 2025), vacating the Biden administration’s Phase 2 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) rule on the grounds that the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)…

The regulation of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), or “forever chemicals,” was a focal point for the Biden administration. In April 2024, the administration, through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), issued two key PFAS rules. The first set nationwide drinking water standards, or maximum contaminant levels (MCLs), for six types of PFAS, and the…

Among President Donald Trump’s directives issued on his first day in office was a Presidential Memorandum targeting wind energy, which has been a significant source of new electricity generation in the United States over the past decade, totaling around 10% of utility-scale generation. Among other things, the Memorandum “temporarily” withdraws the entire ocean off the…