Whether advising policymakers in the executive and legislative branches or counseling private-sector clients, Zach takes a goals-oriented approach, often drawing connections across environmental programs.

Zach’s practice focuses on the Clean Air Act (CAA), the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act, and analogous state laws, including matters involving criteria air pollutants, hazardous air pollutants, greenhouse gases, refrigerants, ozone-depleting substances, and their substitutes. He advises clients on permitting, rulemaking, compliance, enforcement, related litigation, and matters under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP) program.

Zach has particular experience with stationary-source regulation and air permitting, including state implementation plans (SIPs), implementation of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), technology-based standards, Title V operating permits, and New Source Review (NSR), including permitting under the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) program. He advises clients developing energy, industrial, and data center infrastructure on complex permitting and project-development issues, including resolving agency concerns that threaten permits or project schedules.

He also has extensive experience with source-determination issues, including “common control” and “adjacency” considerations, as well as project aggregation. While at EPA, Zach served as the agency’s legal lead on Title V source determinations and on federal oversight of state Title V programs, and drafted EPA Administrator orders responding to citizen petitions challenging state-issued Title V permits.

Before rejoining B&D, Zach worked at an Am Law 100 firm, where he served as the firmwide resource for CAA and air emissions matters.

Zach has served in EPA’s Office of General Counsel as both a career attorney and a political appointee. In his politically appointed role as Senior Legal Counsel, he advised senior agency officials on high-profile, complex initiatives and congressional oversight matters touching every major EPA program office. Earlier, as a career attorney, Zach focused extensively on air quality and climate matters under the CAA. He advised EPA policymakers on dozens of rulemakings involving federal-state regulatory issues, including implementation of the NAAQS, interstate air pollution under the CAA’s “Good Neighbor” provision, and emissions during periods of startup, shutdown, and malfunction (SSM). Zach also served on EPA’s legal team developing and defending the Clean Power Plan, EPA’s greenhouse gas regulations for existing power plants.

In addition to his EPA experience, Zach spent two years detailed to the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works, first through a fellowship with the Brookings Institution and later as an executive branch detailee. In the Senate, he advised policymakers on an array of environmental matters. He was deeply involved in drafting and negotiating the bipartisan Vessel Incidental Discharge Act (VIDA), which reformed the regulation of ballast water and similar vessel discharges under the Clean Water Act. Zach also helped draft and negotiate the bipartisan AIM Act, which established the federal program to phase down hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).

Zach has received numerous awards for his professional work, including EPA’s Gold Medal for Exceptional Service and the U.S. Department of Justice Assistant Attorney General’s Award for Excellence.

Throughout his legal education, Zach demonstrated a passion for federal public service, taking internships and clerkships in EPA’s Office of Compliance, Office of Civil Enforcement, and Office of Administrative Law Judges; the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon; and the NSR enforcement group within the U.S. Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division in Washington, DC.

Representative Experience

• Advised an industrial client denied a state air permit approval on the eve of a significant, long-planned construction project, developing a strategy that allowed the project to proceed without delay.*
• Defended an industrial client against allegations of construction under an expired PSD permit, helping avoid retroactive Best Available Control Technology (BACT) determinations.*
• Represented a specialty chemical company in EPA’s initial AIM Act allowance allocation rulemaking, helping secure HFC import allowances after the company had been excluded under the proposed framework.
• Drafted numerous rulemaking comments for companies, trade associations, and municipalities on major EPA air and climate regulations under the CAA and AIM Act.
• Counseled automotive and transportation companies on evolving federal and state mobile-source emissions requirements and the interplay between federal and state regulation.
• Guided companies through voluntary disclosures under EPA’s Audit Policy and analogous state programs.
• Advised on transactions and project financings involving novel or high-stakes air regulatory issues where permitting, emissions requirements, or emerging regulatory programs could materially affect project feasibility, valuation, or liability.*

*Indicates experience obtained before rejoining B&D at another law firm.