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Inflation Reduction Act
Environmental Enforcement Defense 101
The federal and state environmental agencies have a vast array of enforcement tools with which they seek to impose penalties or require significant capital and process improvements on the part of the regulated community in circumstances where the agencies identify...
EPA Repeals Obama Rule Defining Waters of the U.S.
On Thursday, September 12, EPA General Counsel Matt Leopold announced EPA’s final rule repealing the 2015 Waters of the United States (“WOTUS”) Rule. Significantly, General Counsel Leopold did not announce the final replacement WOTUS Rule, which was proposed in February...
The Final ESA Rule: "Taking" Stock of the Changes and Challenges
The Endangered Species Act is a key, and sometimes controversial, environmental law with significant implications for energy and infrastructure development. The federal government recently issued final rules that change, in certain respects, implementation of the law. This webinar will explore...
Highlights from This Year’s Texas Environmental Superconference
This month, Associate Daniel Pope will run through highlights from this year's Texas Environmental Superconference. Topics covered at the Superconference run the gamut of state and federal environmental law issues and are applicable to legal practitioners across the country. This...
EPA’s Enforcement Statistics and Priorities – the Trump Administration’s Shift in Focus Toward Collaboration and Greater Coordination with the States
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Special thanks to our 2019 Summer Associate, Craig Jones , for co-authoring this article. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Over the last few months, EPA’s enforcement priorities under the Trump Administration have come into sharper focus. The Fiscal Year 2018 Enforcement Annual Results...
Highlights from the Trump Administration’s Rulemaking Agenda
The Office of Management and Budget’s Spring 2019 Unified Regulatory Agenda includes many items with significant implications for the energy and infrastructure sectors. This blog post offers highlights from the Agenda, with an emphasis on upcoming actions by the Department...
Update on Infrastructure Policy Reform
The President’s recent Executive Order on energy infrastructure directed new measures to improve EPA’s program for state water quality certifications—often a serious impediment to energy infrastructure. Join us to learn about the (hotly anticipated) new guidance from EPA, viewed in...
Best Practices for Agency Communications
Environmental professionals and attorneys are in constant contact with state and federal regulators, in a variety of contexts – regulatory advocacy, permitting, responding to investigations, and enforcement defense. Join representatives of Bracewell’s Environmental Strategies and Policy Resolution Groups for a...
Our Take on Auer – Agency Deference under Scrutiny
Two weeks remain before the Supreme Court hears oral arguments in Kisor v. Wilkie , a likely landmark case for energy and infrastructure companies. When the Supreme Court granted certiorari in December 2018, it took the case specifically to decide...
D.C. Circuit Overturns USACE Permit for Transmission Line
On March 1, 2019, the D.C. Circuit issued its opinion in National Parks Conservation Association v. Semonite, No. 18-5179, finding that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and misinterpreted the National Historic...
Environmental Issues & Terms in Common Commercial Contracts
The everyday conduct of business necessitates activities that involve important environmental requirements and risks. And those activities are commonly accompanied by written agreements that attempt to address those requirements and prevent, mitigate, and allocate those risks. Tim Wilkins and Daniel...
Comment Period Open for Proposed WOTUS Rule
The comment floodgates are open for the proposed federal Waters of the United States (“WOTUS”) rule. The rule would re-define the phrase “waters of the United States” which dictates the geographic reach of the Clean Water Act. The Environmental Protection...
OSHA Rescinds Substantial Portion of Injury/Illness Electronic Reporting Requirement
Under pressure from business organizations, OSHA has issued a final rule rescinding the requirement for workplaces with 250 or more employees to electronically submit data from their OSHA 300 and 301 forms to the agency. The two forms required employers...
Engaging Environmental Specialists and Preserving Privileges
The lines between legal, technical, and strategic communications often get blurry in the context of site investigations, incident response, and other environmental projects. Many company personnel equate "cc-ing" in-house counsel with preserving confidentiality. As a result, the parameters of the...