by John D. Burnside On February 17, 2017, the U.S. Senate confirmed President Trump’s nominee Scott Pruitt as the new administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Senate confirmation followed weeks of partisan and public attacks against Mr. Pruitt’s fitness to serve as the nation’s chief regulator of clean air, water, and land, as well […]
by Rachel M. Lynn On January 6, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the Denbury Green Pipeline-Texas LLC (“Denbury Green”) could take private property by eminent domain. In Denbury Green Pipeline-Texas LLC v. Texas Rice Land Partners Ltd., the decision turned on the question of whether or not Denbury Green qualified as a “common carrier” […]
by Patrick J. Paul To the victor belong the spoils, and President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election (get used to it) and Republican Congressional control will significantly impact environmental programs and priorities going forward. Among other campaign commitments, President-elect Trump promised to increase fossil fuel production and to repeal numerous environmental initiatives of […]
by Michael C. Ford In the run up to the Presidential Election, you may have missed some of the following regulatory developments that might impact your business. Prop 65 Amendments. If your company sells consumer products in California (the 6th largest economy in the world!)[1], it will want to be familiar with recent amendments to the […]
by Michael C. Ford and Farris J. Gillman* The Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act was passed in the House by an overwhelming vote of 403 – 12. After passing the Senate, it was signed into law by President Obama on June 22, 2016. The Lautenberg Act is the first major […]
by Chris Colyer Our colleagues, Denise Dragoo and Stephen Smithson, contributed a chapter on United States environmental law for the 2016 International Comparative Legal Guide to Environment and Climate Change Law (13th Ed.). This Guide is used by in-house counsel across the globe to obtain basic familiarity with the different approaches to environmental law and […]
by Sean M. Sherlock Harry Rogers owned and operated a horse boarding facility called the Stock Farm, in the City of Poway, California – a city that proudly calls itself the “City in the Country.” Rogers wanted to shut down the Stock Farm and subdivide his land into residential lots. Not surprisingly, some of the […]
by Stephen W. Smithson On March 24, 2016, the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) finalized new regulations (https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2016-04800.pdf) for workplace silica exposure. The prior regulations were adopted in 1971 (http://ehstoday.com/osha/osha-issues-final-rule-silica), and OSHA has been considering revised regulations since the Clinton administration (http://www.wsj.com/articles/obama-administration-issues-rule-to-limit-exposure-to-silica-dust-1458828839). Silica exposure is common throughout many industries, as it is […]
by Mitch Klein The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure were recently amended. Amongst the changes, perhaps the most significant are the changes to discovery under Rule 26. Previously, parties were entitled to conduct discovery regarding anything that might be “reasonably calculated” to lead to relevant and admissible evidence. In practice, this led to some parties […]
In a recent rulemaking, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) amended its “All Appropriate Inquiries Rule” (set forth in 40 CFR Part 312) to reference in the rule ASTM Standard E1527-13. ASTM Standard E1527-13 is the recently updated version of the industry standard that is commonly used to conduct Phase I environmental investigations that are undertaken […]
