The Environmental Law Firm

February 2019 issue now available.

After 10 years on ice, EPA’s 2009 project aggregation rule may finally see its day in court. NRDC filed a petition for judicial review of EPA’s recent revival of a 2009 Rule that amended EPA’s interpretation of NSR, a major source air permitting program administered under the CAA.

OSHA has finalized a rule that rescinds the requirement for establishments with 250 or more employees to electronically submit their OSHA Form 300 and Form 301 to OSHA on an annual basis. 

MassDEP will develop a drinking water maximum contaminant level for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, in response to the Conservation Law Foundation’s October 25, 2018 petition.

The Texas Supreme Court ruled that a provision in an insurance policy did not limit coverage for Anadarko’s defense expenses related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill where the provision only capped “liability”—an undefined term.

BOEM published a Notice of Availability for the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Construction and Operations Plan submitted by Vineyard Wind, which holds a federal wind energy lease on the Outer Continental Shelf approximately 14 miles southwest of Martha’s Vineyard.

Oregon lawmakers formally introduced a proposed cap-and-trade bill to address GHG emissions, which would make Oregon the second state after California to adopt an economy-wide cap-and-trade system to regulate GHG emissions. 

Last year saw significant efforts to either impose a price on carbon or reform existing programs, and in some cases roll those programs back. Will we look back on 2018 as a watershed year? It’s hard to tell – but it certainly kept us busy.

At the end of 2018, OPR's years-long effort to update the Guidelines implementing CEQA became a reality. This comprehensive update to nearly 30 sections of the CEQA Guidelines (along with some additions) incorporates new statutes and court decisions. 

For the first time since the passage of the Controlled Substances Act in 1970, it is legal at the federal level to grow, possess, and market certain types of products derived from a cannabis sativa plant.