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President Donald Trump’s August 15, 2017, Executive Order (EO) on improving the federal environmental review process may set the stage for changes to regulations affecting how states participate meaningfully in such reviews. The EO was directed mainly at the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), the federal agency that implements the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). […]
Fifteen attorneys general (AGs) have filed a complaint with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, requesting that the court order the EPA to meet its Clean Air Act (CAA) nondiscretionary obligation to declare which areas of the country are in nonattainment with the Agency’s 2015 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) […]
Backing up his commitment to improve the federal Superfund program, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has issued a list of 21 Superfund sites that he has “targeted for immediate and intense attention.”
During a nomination hearing, Kathleen Harnett White, President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) was asked to explain multiple past statements that troubled Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW). In a subsequent vote, the EPW approved White for a full Senate vote; all Democrats […]
A judge with the Los Angeles Superior Court recently ruled in favor of several environmental groups that had sued to prevent the Board of South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) from reducing, without soliciting public comment, the number of trading credits in SCAQMD’s air pollution control program by less than what had been previously […]
In an unusual development, 60 former EPA attorneys have written to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt criticizing Pruitt’s October 16, 2017, directive and memo about the Agency’s past approach to settling lawsuits.
In contrast to appointments of individuals with close ties to industry to top EPA positions, which Democrats and environmental groups have fiercely opposed, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s announcement that Alexandra Dapolito Dunn will serve as administrator of the Agency’s Region 1 (New England) office was welcomed by each of the six New England states and […]
Stating that they wish to ensure regulatory continuity and certainty, the Trump EPA and Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) have issued another proposal in their campaign to eliminate the Obama administration’s June 2015 final rule defining the Clean Water Act (CWA) term, waters of the United States (WOTUS rule). The current proposal would delay the […]
Parties to the Paris Climate Accord need to accelerate their actions to both meet the goals of the accord and go beyond those goals. That was the main message emerging from the 23rd Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP-23), a 12-day meeting that concluded in Bonn, German, […]
Ten U.S. senators (nine Democrats and Bernie Sanders, an Independent) have asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s new policy for appointing members to the Agency’s scientific federal advisory committees (FACs). The request follows Pruitt’s issuance of principles and procedures for filling committee FAC vacancies. The major new provision prohibits […]