Monthly Archives: March 2022

In September 2021, Foley Hoag partnered with the Global Council for Science and the Environment (GCSE) and the American College of Environmental Lawyers (ACOEL) on a collaborative research effort designed to compare French and U.S. legal frameworks for regulating plastic pollution. Over the last six months, a team of international environmental lawyers analyzed the existing policies, regulations, and legislation in France and the U.S. that directly and indirectly regulate plastic pollution;… More

Last week, the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee formally transmitted its recommendations to EPA Administrator Regan regarding the PM2.5 NAAQS.  Consistent with trade press reporting over the past few months, the majority of CASAC members recommended that the PM2.5 NAAQS be set between 8-10 ug/m3.  A minority recommended the range be set between 10-11 ug/m3.  I’d be surprised if the revised NAAQS is set above 10 ug/3. 

For me,… More

Today, the Securities & Exchange Commission voted 3 to 1 in favor of adopting a long-awaited set of proposed revisions to SEC regulations concerning the disclosure of climate risks and related financial impacts, as well as data on greenhouse gas emissions in certain SEC filings. The recommendation to adopt the new set of rules was not unanimous, with Commissioner Hester Peirce voting against the measure, arguing that the new set of rules is at best unnecessary,… More

The Boston Air Pollution Control Commission has formally adopted its “Building Emissions Reduction and Disclosure Ordinance Phase 1 Regulations.”  The Phase 1 regulations are really all about the “disclosure” side of BERDO.  The “reduction” side will be addressed by the Phase 2 regulations, which at this point are scheduled to be completed by the winter of 2023. 

The final Phase 1 regulations largely track the draft released late last year. … More

The Fifth Circuit has stayed an order blocking Biden administration use of the “Interim Estimates” of the social cost of greenhouse gases.  The Court did not leave much doubt that the administration will prevail on the merits. 

Issuance of a stay is based on criteria very similar to those regarding entry of an injunction.  The two most important are the likelihood of success on the merits and whether the person requesting the stay will suffer irreparable harm if a stay is not granted. … More

Last week, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals again rejected a FERC NEPA review for failure to assess the climate impacts resulting from the downstream use of natural gas supplied by a gas pipeline upgrade project approved by FERC.  The Court found that FERC was too quick to conclude that those downstream impacts could not reasonably be evaluated.

How big a deal is this? … More

EPA has now formally restored its waiver under § 209(b) of the Clean Air Act that allows California’s greenhouse gas emissions standards and Zero Emission Vehicle mandate, notwithstanding the preemption of state vehicle emission standards contained in § 209(a) of the CAA.  EPA also restored the authority of other states under § 177 of the CAA to adopt the California standards.

In what we lawyers might describe as pleading in the alternative,… More

An article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (login required) has documented the devastating impact caused by the use of leaded gasoline.  The study estimates that more than half of Americans alive in 2015 had been subject to unsafe blood lead levels as children.  The study further estimates that the impact of these elevated blood levels was a net loss of 824,097,690 IQ points as of 2015. … More

In January, I noted that Ameren Missouri had surrendered in its defense of the NSR enforcement action brought by DOJ with respect to the Rush Island generating facility.  Ameren Missouri submitted to the Court a proposal to shut Rush Island early rather than install expensive pollution control equipment. 

None of this was really news.  What was news was that DOJ (and the Sierra Club) opposed Ameren Missouri’s proposal. … More

Last week, AIG significantly restricted its underwriting of and investment in fossil fuel projects.  Specifically, it announced the following actions:

• With immediate effect, committed to no longer invest in or provide insurance for construction of any new coal-fired power plants, thermal coal mines or oil sands;
• With immediate effect, committed to no longer invest in or underwrite new operation insurance risks of coal-fired power plants,…

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Earlier this week, the United Nations Environment Programme (doesn’t everything just look better with British spelling!) announced that 175 nations had approved a resolution titled “End plastic pollution:  Towards an international legally binding instrument.”  If the ambition of the resolution wasn’t clear from the title, perhaps this quote from the UNEP press release will make it so.

Today marks a triumph by planet earth over single-use plastics.… More