U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Frederick Scullin has ordered EPA to respond to a petition by the Center for Biological Diversity requesting that EPA find that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from aircraft, ships and non-road engines endanger the public health and welfare. EPA has already found that GHG emissions from automobile [...]
Tags: Center for Biological Diversity, Endangerment Finding for Aircraft, EPA, Ships and Non-Road Engines
In final rules released on April 18, EPA has imposed first time air emissions controls on hydraulic fracturing wells, as well as on other gas operations. However, EPA granted industry’s request to delay implementation of the fracking controls until 2015 in order to ensure the availability of the required technology to control the emissions.
The rule [...]
Each summer, the Chattahoochee Nature Center hosts Camp Kingfisher, a camp filled with hands-on environmental education programs and dynamic outdoor activities, which serves more than 900 metro Atlanta families each year.
Registration for Camp Kingfisher 2012 is now open. Summer camp runs May 29-August 10, 2012, with one and two week sessions for ages 5 – 17.
See and hear [...]
On April 13, the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club filed suit against the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) alleging it shirked its duties under federal law in connection with permitting a California wind farm development.
The environmental groups argue BLM violated the Endangered Species Act, [...]
Tags: Administrative Procedure Act, Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Endangered Species Act, North Sky Project, Sierra Club, the National Environmental Policy Act
By Andy Thompson, athompson@sgrlaw.com
In a March 6, 2012 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held that parties who enter into a consent decree with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) following an EPA enforcement action and then seek recovery of cleanup costs from other potentially responsible parties (PRPs) are limited to [...]
Tags: Andy Thompson, CERCLA remedies, contribution claim, cost recovery claim, Eleventh Circuit decision, Solutia v. McWane
As a result of recent technological innovations improving the ability to extract oil and natural gas from shale and other rock formations, the popularity of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has surged, leading to new investment opportunities and positive growth for the domestic gas and oil production industry. With the expansion, however, has come risk and [...]
Tags: Oil & Gas Monitor, Top Environmental Concerns in Fracking
On March 21, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an unanimous decision in Sackett v. EPA, a closely watched case addressing the enforcement authority of the U.S. EPA under § 309 of the federal Clean Water Act (CWA). Without addressing the underlying substantive issue regarding the jurisdictional scope of the CWA, the Supreme Court held [...]
Tags: Clean Water Act, EPA enforcement action, judicial review of an EPA administrative compliance order, Pre-Enforcement Judicial Review of EPA Compliance Orders, Sackett v. EPA
On March 2, the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) announced DE-FOA-0000670, a $150 million funding opportunity open for new, innovative renewable and non-renewable electricity generation, energy efficiency and transportation technologies.
“To address the challenges imposed by the rapidly evolving global energy market, ARPA-E seeks to support transformational research in all areas of energy R&D, [...]
Tags: Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy, ARPA-E, renewable energy funding
Last year, EPA released two final rules to reduce emissions of air pollutants from existing and new boilers and major and area source facilities: (1) the Boiler MACT Rule; and (2) the Area Source Rule. In response to an overwhelming number of comments and petitions for reconsideration, EPA proposed significant changes to both rules in December 2011.
The [...]
Tags: Area Source Rule, Boiler MACT Rule, EPA Boiler Rules, EPA reconsideration