Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
On March 2, 2016, the Oregon Legislature passed the Clean Electricity and Coal Transition Plan (Senate Bill (SB) 1547, B-eng.). Should Democratic Governor Kate Brown sign the bill into law—and she has preliminarily indicated that she will—Oregon will become the first state to set a deadline for eliminating coal-fired electricity generation by its major utilities. […]
In a blow to the agricultural and land development sectors, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case challenging EPA’s 2010 total maximum daily load (TMDL) program for the Chesapeake Bay. The case was launched in 2011 when the American Farm Bureau, the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, the National Association of Home Builders, and others […]
The attorneys general (AGs) of 20 states have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) because the Agency had no legal authority to promulgate them. The AGs base their argument on the Supreme Court’s ruling in Michigan v. EPA (2015), in which a 5–4 majority ruled that the […]
A generator’s hazardous waste status is based on the quantity of hazardous waste generated each month. So do all your generated hazardous wastes need to be counted? Yes, but no. The federal regulation at 40 CFR 261.5(c) and (d) sets forth a list of wastes that are exempt from being counted in connection with ascertaining […]
In a 2-to-1 opinion in which each judge expressed different views, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit said that it would rule on consolidated petitions challenging the Clean Water Rule (CWR), jointly issued on June 29, 2015, by the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (agencies).
Q. Would flavorings that contain small amounts of oil (for example, almond and hazelnut oil) count towards an inventory to determine Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) applicability if they are stored in 55 gallon drums or greater?
When the U.S. Supreme Court granted a state petition to stay EPA’s Clean Power Plan (CPP) until the state case against the plan worked its way through the U.S. appeals court (and possibly the Supreme Court itself), the five justices favoring the stay did not specify why they made that decision. However, in their brief, […]
The Constitution is silent on protection of the environment, and so environmental cases did not provide the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia with a convenient opening to expand on his belief in originalism—the position that the Constitution means what the framers wanted it to mean when they wrote it and that meaning does not […]
Reporting season is in full swing. You may be wrapping up your Tier II chemical inventory reports, as the deadline is just days away, but for sources emitting greenhouse gases (GHG), there is no time to catch your breath. GHG emissions reports required by 40 CFR 98 are due on March 31.
The U.S. Supreme Court granted a petition from 29 states and state agencies seeking to stay EPA’s Clean Power Plan (CPP) while challenges to the plan progress through the federal courts. The practical effect of the Court’s order is that the first deadline of June 30, 2016, for states to submit their initial plans for […]