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The American College of Environmental Lawyers (ACOEL) is a professional association of distinguished lawyers who practice in the field of environmental law.
The American College of Environmental Lawyers (ACOEL) is a professional association of distinguished lawyers who practice in the field of environmental law.
Our members are dedicated to: maintaining and improving the ethical practice of environmental law, the administration of justice, and the development of environmental law through rigorous focus, outreach and education in all forums – federal, state, municipal, tribal and international. Membership is by invitation and members are recognized by their peers as preeminent in their field.
Recent Blogs and News
from ACOEL
The Law Is An Ass, RCRA Edition
Posted on October 15, 2021 by Seth Jaffe Late last month, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a public water supplier could be liable in a citizens’…
IMPROVING CONSULTATION WITH TRIBES IS AN EPA PRIORITY, BUT WHAT ABOUT IMPROVING STATE-TRIBAL ENGAGEMENT? RECENT ACTIONS BY MICHIGAN ARE WORTH CONSIDERATION
Posted on October 11, 2021 by Steve Chester On September 30, 2021, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan issued a memorandum to all EPA employees reaffirming the…
Rulemaking Nightmares
Posted on October 6, 2021 by John M. Barkett Part I: Rulemaking Beginning in 2012, I spent seven years on the Advisory Committee for Civil Rules. I had the…
The Western Mega-drought’s Impacts on Practicing Water Law in the West
Posted on October 4, 2021 by Thomas Sansonetti Consider this advice for budding environmental lawyers: It’s a good time to be practicing water law in the western United States. …
Does anyone remember consensus?
Posted on October 1, 2021 by Dennis H. Treacy In today’s polarized world, it is increasingly difficult to find common ground on environmental issues. Pipelines are good. Pipelines are bad….
Do You Know Your Blue Food?
Posted on September 30, 2021 by Robin Kundis Craig If you’re like me, the phrase “blue food” conjures images of the decidedly unnatural blue raspberry flavor found in slushes,…
How Safe is Your WOTUS Harbor?
Posted on September 21, 2021 by Patrick Parenteau In 2005 the Corps of Engineers adopted a Regulatory Guidance Letter (RGL) providing that an “approved jurisdictional determination” (AJD) “will remain…
Progressive New Jersey: The Garden State continues its environmental leadership by enacting forward-looking programs
Posted on September 17, 2021 by Dennis Krumholz New Jersey has been a leader in addressing the most significant environmental problems of the day. Decades ago, for example, four…
The Battle for Carlin Lake
Posted on September 13, 2021 by David Ullrich A small lake in Northern Wisconsin became the battleground for a classic showdown between a small group of cottage owners and…
Where have we come from? What are we? Where are we going? With apologies to Paul Gauguin
Posted on September 9, 2021 by Tommy Lavender As we know, the serious foray into federal environmental protection began in the early 1970’s, before which even my own capital…
Protection of Lawyers Against Defamation Actions Does Not Apply to Press Releases
Posted on September 7, 2021 by Irma Russell Last month, I served on a panel for the State Bar of Texas Environmental Law Superconference, which focused on an important…
It’s Important to Acknowledge Good News — The End of Leaded Gasoline
Posted on September 3, 2021 by Seth Jaffe As climate change rightly has dominated recent discussions of environmental policy, it’s been easy to forget how much progress has been…
State Constitutions to the Rescue?
Posted on August 27, 2021 by Michael B. Gerrard The constitutions of more than three-quarters of the countries on earth have explicit reference to environmental rights or responsibilities In…
THE AMERICAN WEST IS DRYING OUT. HERE’S WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT.
Posted on August 25, 2021 by Richard M. Frank The American West is in the throes of a “megadrought”—one that’s plagued the region since 2000. Indeed, the Western U.S….
With Friends Like These . . . . Another Federal Appeals Court Takes Clean Water Act Enforcement Out of EPA’s Hands
Posted on August 19, 2021 by Jeff Porter This week the Sacketts of Idaho were handed their most recent litigation defeat by a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit…
Does Pollution Make You Dumber? (And Other Questions About Exposure to Particulate Matter.)
Posted on August 18, 2021 by Seth Jaffe Most people other than Andrew Wheeler and the Trump Administration Clean Air Science Advisory Committee know that exposure even to low…
Agricultural Air Pollution: A Brief Reprise
Posted on August 17, 2021 by Don Stever I previously wrote an ACOEL blog post that pointed out the relationship between meat agriculture and global warming. I will start…
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Reaffirms and Extends Landmark 2017 Public Trust Decision
Posted on August 16, 2021 by John Dernbach In May 1971, at the beginning of the modern environmental movement, Pennsylvania voters approved an Environmental Rights Amendment (ERA) to the…
Climate Change Is Widespread, Rapid, and Intensifying — And Terrifying
Posted on August 10, 2021 by Seth Jaffe The IPCC has released its Sixth Assessment Report on the physical science basis of climate change. I would say that it…
ACOEL Posts Video of ACOEL-Columbia Univ-EDF-FANJ Joint Webinar on US-Cuba Environmental Cooperation
Posted on August 5, 2021 by David B. Farer Earlier this year, ACOEL co-sponsored and participated in a joint webinar with Columbia University, the Environmental Defense Fund, and the…
Colorado Put the Institution in Institutional Controls
Posted on August 4, 2021 by Dan Miller Thirty-one years after enactment of CERCLA, most environmental practitioners take for granted that remedies at federal and state Superfund sites will…
Ohio District Court Confirms its Ruling That CERCLA Does Not Apply to Disposal of A “Naturally Occurring” Hazardous Substance
Posted on August 3, 2021 by Jennifer T. Nijman Finally, there is a substance that, when sent to a CERCLA Superfund Site, does not subject a party to liability….
Is “Infrastructure Week” Hydropower’s Moment?
Posted on August 3, 2021 by Rick Glick As distinguished from the previous Administration’s oft announced but never followed through on “Infrastructure Weeks,” it appears the current Administration and…
Posted on August 2, 2021 by Kevin R. Murray Early in my career, I was involved in a natural resource damages case seeking to establish the monetary value of…
Who Can’t Get No Respect? Rodney Dangerfield and Offshore Wind Energy
Posted on July 30, 2021 by Jeff Thaler “I don’t get no respect” was comedian Rodney Dangerfield’s well-known catchphrase, and also the reason his 1981 album won a Grammy….
The Gap Between PFAS Science and PFAS Legislation–Industry Place Your Bets
Posted on July 30, 2021 by Donald K. Shandy In the race to regulate PFAS substances, Congress’ actions have outpaced agency knowledge, leaving industry to wager on the outcome….
OH, CONGRESS FORGOT THE SCIENCE
Posted on July 29, 2021 by Kenneth J. Warren In an ACOEL blog posted on July 27, 2021, Seth Jaffe expressed his support for the Supreme Court’s majority opinion…
Maui Needs a NPDES Permit; What’s Next for WOTUS?
Posted on July 27, 2021 by Seth Jaffe Last week, District Judge Susan Mollway ruled that the County of Maui must obtain a NPDES permit for discharges to groundwater…
A Tempest over Moosehead Lake
Posted on July 22, 2021 by Jerry Reid If you’ve never been to Moosehead Lake in northwestern Maine, you really should go. It’s a place of spectacular and unspoiled…
Landmines For Your Landowner Liability Protections?
Posted on July 19, 2021 by Amy L. Edwards Every eight years, ASTM standard-setting committees are required to re-evaluate existing ASTM standards. The ASTM E1527-13 Standard Practice on Phase…
A Truly Global Community of Environmental Law Scholars
Posted on July 16, 2021 by Robert Percival Earlier this month more than 300 professors and graduate students throughout the world participated in the first virtual colloquium of the…
Taking a Five-Year-Old to Court: EPA’s First 10 Risk Evaluations Meet the Bench
Posted on July 12, 2021 by Alexandra Dapolito Dunn The 2016 Lautenberg Amendments turning five on June 22, 2021 provides a perfect opportunity to reflect on how this ambitious…
WE’RE NUMBER THREE!
Posted on July 2, 2021 by Paul Seals Texas is now the third state with an approved CCR permit program. On June 28, 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency published…
It’s Our Big Moment – Environmental Law’s Chance to Shine as the “E” in ESG
Posted on June 30, 2021 by Heidi B. (Goldstein) Friedman Picture the marquee surrounded by bright flashing lights as the Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) mandates, requirements and best…
What does the Biden Administration want in a new global plastics treaty?
Posted on June 24, 2021 by Paul Hagen The Communique from President Biden and other world leaders attending the G-7 Summit earlier this month is the latest high-level signal…
Ninth Circuit Finds No Sovereign Immunity Waiver For Tribes Under CWA
Posted on June 23, 2021 by Beth S. Ginsberg On June 23, 2021, the Ninth Circuit in Deschutes River All. v. Portland Gen. Elec. became the first court in…
Renewable Energy? For some, the answer may not be blowing in the wind.
Posted on June 23, 2021 by Steven Miano The Biden administration has committed to significantly expanding development of renewable energy. These projects, including solar and wind are welcomed by…
Using Subject Matter Jurisdiction to Dump Inconvenient Cases
Posted on June 22, 2021 by Adam Babich Successful objections to subject matter jurisdiction can operate like a King’s-X for illegal behavior – a hole in the rule of…
New Jersey Broadens Brownfield Redevelopment Incentives
Posted on June 17, 2021 by David B. Farer The New Jersey Economic Recovery Act of 2020 (ERA), signed into law by Governor Phil Murphy on January 7, 2021…
Just How Absolute is the Absolute Pollution Exclusion?
Posted on June 16, 2021 by Thomas M. Hnasko Despite the myriad CERCLA cases on the books, there is little – if any – jurisprudence dissecting the so-called “absolute…
Transforming a 3000 Acre Steelmaking Complex from Hazardous Waste Site to a Restoration Success
Posted on June 15, 2021 by Ridge Hall In 1959 Bethlehem Steel’s Sparrows Point facility, located on the Patapsco River near the mouth of Baltimore Harbor, was the biggest…
U.S. Policy on Cuba: Is It Safe to Go Back into the Water?
Posted on June 10, 2021 by Daniel Whittle On Valentine’s Day 2015, Cuban and American scientists went fishing off the north coast of Cuba, setting out from Cojimar, the…
Bidding Adieu to the Connecticut Transfer Act … and Welcoming a New Remedial Approach
Posted on Jun 7, 2021 by Pamela Elkow In September 2020, during a special legislative session, Connecticut took the plunge and passed Public Act 20-9, a statute that will…
The Aftermath of McGirt
Posted on June 4, 2021 by L. Mark Walker In 1997, Jimey McGirt, an enrolled member of the Seminole Nation, was convicted in an Oklahoma District Court of molesting,…
Get the Lead Out
Posted on June 4, 2021 by Robert Kaplan The toughest question I ever got in Flint was in a church basement on the north side of town. At the…
The New Environmental and Human Rights Treaty in Latin America and the Caribbean You Should Know About
Posted June 3, 2021 by Susan Kath The Escazú Agreement came into force in April 2021 with 12 ratifications (out of a possible 33) from Latin American and Caribbean…
Love Canal Revisited
Posted June 2, 2021 by Ed Tormey It was 41 years ago that one of the more bizarre events in U.S. environmental history took place: two U.S. EPA officials…
CAN WE BLAME THIS ON THE ‘RONA?
Posted May 28, 2021 by Lloyd Landreth Being the Husband and Father of 3 medical professionals who have been on the front-lines of COVID-19, I am the last person…
I Love It When SCOTUS Reminds Me How Clear and Unambiguous CERCLA Is
Posted May 26, 2021 by Seth Jaffe On May 24th, the Supreme Court ruled that only settlements that explicitly resolve liability under CERCLA trigger the contribution provisions of section…
Reflections of a Retired Environmental Lawyer
On December 31, 2020, I retired after working more than 40 years in the environmental field—two as an engineer, 30 as a lawyer, and 10 as a climate change…
Mainers Opposing Clean Renewable Energy? What’s Wrong?
Mainers are generally regarded as an environmentally sensitive and enlightened populace. The state boasts cleaner water and air than many other states, significant and beautiful natural features, and…
Environmental Law—sick unto death with that long agony?
Environmental policy swings like a pendulum without regard to permanency, thus creating unique challenges to environmental improvement. We see pendulums in all areas of our lives—longcase clocks, playground swings,…
I May Agree With This EPA On Most Issues, But I Still Don’t Like Guidance
One of the results of the November election that makes me happiest is that I can now go back to being part of the loyal opposition. In other…
Smoke Plumes, Pigs & Poultry – Do Right-to-Farm Laws Checkmate Tort Class Actions?
According to some critics, recent amendments to Florida’s Right-to-Farm law are intended to defeat class action litigation brought against the economically important sugar industry. The lawsuit involves pre-harvest…
Mississippi Hasn’t Got a Chance (Bless its Heart), But its Original Action Against Tennessee is Still a Case to Watch
Mississippi thinks Tennessee is stealing its groundwater, and it has filed an original action in the United States Supreme Court to stop it. State of Mississippi v. State of…
Determining Disparate Impacts in Environmental Justice Communities: Does Friends of Buckingham v. State Air Pollution Control Board Provide the Roadmap?
It has long been recognized that minority and disadvantaged communities are subject to higher levels of pollution than more affluent non-minority areas. This fact is the basis of the…
How Are We Really Going to Get to Net Zero?
Late last month, the Washington Legislature passed the “Climate Commitment Act”, a piece of sweeping climate legislation that includes, among other provisions, an economy-wide cap-and-trade system. Washington was…
Let Me Introduce You
I wrote a limerick. I won a book. And I encountered the climate feminist — not a single person; a movement of female leaders “rooted in compassion, connection, creativity…
Transfer of NPDES Authority for Oil and Gas Discharges to Texas—The Implementation Phase
On January 15, 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) transferred Clean Water Act Section 402 authority to Texas to issue National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits for…
Critically Examining Environmental Justice Critiques of GHG Auction-Cap-and-Trade
The Biden Administration has pledged to put the nation on track to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and simultaneously to promote environmental justice. Both goals are achievable and, indeed,…
New York City is Taking on GHG Emissions from its Building Sector
In June 2017, the City of New York announced its commitment to achieve emission reductions consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement. Three months later, it released a…
A Win for the Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Legal Alliance recently won a notable victory for the Assateague Coastal Trust in a successful challenge to the Maryland Department of Environmental Protection’s issuance of a state…
Reflections from My Octopus Teacher
Since the pandemic started, like many people, I have watched way more TV than I had previously watched. Recently, my daughter suggested we watch a film entitled My Octopus…
Houston Highway Tests Biden’s Promise of Equitable Infrastructure
The Biden Administration has acknowledged the racist history of the U.S. interstate highway system and its ongoing negative impacts on many Black neighborhoods. Presidential Memorandum on Redressing Our Nation’s…
Interior Secretary Debra Halland: Restorer of Balance?
Debra Halland made history when the Senate voted 51-40 on March 15, 2021 to confirm her to be Secretary of the Department of the Interior (DOI). She is the…
Canada Given Green Light to Carbon Pricing: Why the Supreme Court of Canada’s Decision Should Matter to Those South of Our Northern Border
On March 25, 2021, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act (“GGPPA”), which establishes a national pricing benchmark for greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions. Reference…
A Property Right To Exclude Others: Cedar Point Nursery’s Implications For Regulatory Enforcement
The Supreme Court recently heard oral argument in Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid (No. 20-107), a case that has generated considerable amicus participation and press coverage. In that…
The Massachusetts Climate Bill is Very Much “Not Dead”
In January, when Governor Baker vetoed the Legislature’s effort to go big on climate, my colleague Zach Gerson made clear that the bill was not even “mostly dead.” …
A pencil and calculator on top of a printout of graphs, charts, and figures.
Thirteen Years Later, D.C. Circuit Says “Reasonable Possibility” Provision of NSR Rule Is Good Enough
On March 5, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied a challenge to a more than decade-old EPA rule related to the records that source owners…
STEPHEN E. HERRMANN ENVIRONMENTAL WRITING AWARD
The American College of Environmental Lawyers (“ACOEL”) announces its annual Stephen E. Herrmann Environmental Writing Award (“Herrmann Award”) for the 2020-21 academic year. Stephen E. Herrmann is a…
Loving—and Living with—the Neutrality of Administrative Law
One salutary feature of administrative law—the core practice of many environmental litigators—is its predominant neutrality. There is nothing partisan about the principles that an agency must draw a “rational…
Photo of a factory with active smoke stacks
THE CLEAN POWER PLAN IS DEAD. LONG LIVE THE CLEAN POWER PLAN!
The Obama administration adopted the Clean Power Plan to reduce power sector greenhouse gas emissions in line with its commitments under the Paris Agreement climate accord. The Clean Power…
Lower Granite Dam, Snake River, Washington (earthen berm portion at left)
Photo: US Army Corps of Engineers
FIGMENTS OF THE IMAGINATION
I first saw Grand Coulee Dam as a 10-year old. My family and I were on our way to Spokane, Washington to attend Expo ’74, officially titled the…
Cost-Benefit Analysis Is Very Complicated — And Very Important
It’s only a slight rhetorical exaggeration to say that the limited bandwidth left to environmental issues other than climate change in recent years has been largely occupied by concerns…
Who Can’t Get No Respect? Rodney Dangerfield and Offshore Wind Energy
Posted on July 30, 2021 by Jeff Thaler “I don’t get no respect” was comedian Rodney Dangerfield’s well-known catchphrase, and also the reason his 1981 album won a Grammy….
The Gap Between PFAS Science and PFAS Legislation–Industry Place Your Bets
Posted on July 30, 2021 by Donald K. Shandy In the race to regulate PFAS substances, Congress’ actions have outpaced agency knowledge, leaving industry to wager on the outcome….
OH, CONGRESS FORGOT THE SCIENCE
Posted on July 29, 2021 by Kenneth J. Warren In an ACOEL blog posted on July 27, 2021, Seth Jaffe expressed his support for the Supreme Court’s majority opinion…
Maui Needs a NPDES Permit; What’s Next for WOTUS?
Posted on July 27, 2021 by Seth Jaffe Last week, District Judge Susan Mollway ruled that the County of Maui must obtain a NPDES permit for discharges to groundwater…
A Tempest over Moosehead Lake
Posted on July 22, 2021 by Jerry Reid If you’ve never been to Moosehead Lake in northwestern Maine, you really should go. It’s a place of spectacular and unspoiled…
Landmines For Your Landowner Liability Protections?
Posted on July 19, 2021 by Amy L. Edwards Every eight years, ASTM standard-setting committees are required to re-evaluate existing ASTM standards. The ASTM E1527-13 Standard Practice on Phase…
A Truly Global Community of Environmental Law Scholars
Posted on July 16, 2021 by Robert Percival Earlier this month more than 300 professors and graduate students throughout the world participated in the first virtual colloquium of the…
Taking a Five-Year-Old to Court: EPA’s First 10 Risk Evaluations Meet the Bench
Posted on July 12, 2021 by Alexandra Dapolito Dunn The 2016 Lautenberg Amendments turning five on June 22, 2021 provides a perfect opportunity to reflect on how this ambitious…
WE’RE NUMBER THREE!
Posted on July 2, 2021 by Paul Seals Texas is now the third state with an approved CCR permit program. On June 28, 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency published…
It’s Our Big Moment – Environmental Law’s Chance to Shine as the “E” in ESG
Posted on June 30, 2021 by Heidi B. (Goldstein) Friedman Picture the marquee surrounded by bright flashing lights as the Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) mandates, requirements and best…
What does the Biden Administration want in a new global plastics treaty?
Posted on June 24, 2021 by Paul Hagen The Communique from President Biden and other world leaders attending the G-7 Summit earlier this month is the latest high-level signal…
Ninth Circuit Finds No Sovereign Immunity Waiver For Tribes Under CWA
Posted on June 23, 2021 by Beth S. Ginsberg On June 23, 2021, the Ninth Circuit in Deschutes River All. v. Portland Gen. Elec. became the first court in…
Renewable Energy? For some, the answer may not be blowing in the wind.
Posted on June 23, 2021 by Steven Miano The Biden administration has committed to significantly expanding development of renewable energy. These projects, including solar and wind are welcomed by…
Using Subject Matter Jurisdiction to Dump Inconvenient Cases
Posted on June 22, 2021 by Adam Babich Successful objections to subject matter jurisdiction can operate like a King’s-X for illegal behavior – a hole in the rule of…
New Jersey Broadens Brownfield Redevelopment Incentives
Posted on June 17, 2021 by David B. Farer The New Jersey Economic Recovery Act of 2020 (ERA), signed into law by Governor Phil Murphy on January 7, 2021…
Just How Absolute is the Absolute Pollution Exclusion?
Posted on June 16, 2021 by Thomas M. Hnasko Despite the myriad CERCLA cases on the books, there is little – if any – jurisprudence dissecting the so-called “absolute…
Transforming a 3000 Acre Steelmaking Complex from Hazardous Waste Site to a Restoration Success
Posted on June 15, 2021 by Ridge Hall In 1959 Bethlehem Steel’s Sparrows Point facility, located on the Patapsco River near the mouth of Baltimore Harbor, was the biggest…
U.S. Policy on Cuba: Is It Safe to Go Back into the Water?
Posted on June 10, 2021 by Daniel Whittle On Valentine’s Day 2015, Cuban and American scientists went fishing off the north coast of Cuba, setting out from Cojimar, the…
Bidding Adieu to the Connecticut Transfer Act … and Welcoming a New Remedial Approach
Posted on Jun 7, 2021 by Pamela Elkow In September 2020, during a special legislative session, Connecticut took the plunge and passed Public Act 20-9, a statute that will…
The Aftermath of McGirt
Posted on June 4, 2021 by L. Mark Walker In 1997, Jimey McGirt, an enrolled member of the Seminole Nation, was convicted in an Oklahoma District Court of molesting,…
Get the Lead Out
Posted on June 4, 2021 by Robert Kaplan The toughest question I ever got in Flint was in a church basement on the north side of town. At the…
The New Environmental and Human Rights Treaty in Latin America and the Caribbean You Should Know About
Posted June 3, 2021 by Susan Kath The Escazú Agreement came into force in April 2021 with 12 ratifications (out of a possible 33) from Latin American and Caribbean…
Love Canal Revisited
Posted June 2, 2021 by Ed Tormey It was 41 years ago that one of the more bizarre events in U.S. environmental history took place: two U.S. EPA officials…
CAN WE BLAME THIS ON THE ‘RONA?
Posted May 28, 2021 by Lloyd Landreth Being the Husband and Father of 3 medical professionals who have been on the front-lines of COVID-19, I am the last person…
I Love It When SCOTUS Reminds Me How Clear and Unambiguous CERCLA Is
Posted May 26, 2021 by Seth Jaffe On May 24th, the Supreme Court ruled that only settlements that explicitly resolve liability under CERCLA trigger the contribution provisions of section…
Reflections of a Retired Environmental Lawyer
On December 31, 2020, I retired after working more than 40 years in the environmental field—two as an engineer, 30 as a lawyer, and 10 as a climate change…
Mainers Opposing Clean Renewable Energy? What’s Wrong?
Mainers are generally regarded as an environmentally sensitive and enlightened populace. The state boasts cleaner water and air than many other states, significant and beautiful natural features, and…
Environmental Law—sick unto death with that long agony?
Environmental policy swings like a pendulum without regard to permanency, thus creating unique challenges to environmental improvement. We see pendulums in all areas of our lives—longcase clocks, playground swings,…
I May Agree With This EPA On Most Issues, But I Still Don’t Like Guidance
One of the results of the November election that makes me happiest is that I can now go back to being part of the loyal opposition. In other…
Smoke Plumes, Pigs & Poultry – Do Right-to-Farm Laws Checkmate Tort Class Actions?
According to some critics, recent amendments to Florida’s Right-to-Farm law are intended to defeat class action litigation brought against the economically important sugar industry. The lawsuit involves pre-harvest…
Mississippi Hasn’t Got a Chance (Bless its Heart), But its Original Action Against Tennessee is Still a Case to Watch
Mississippi thinks Tennessee is stealing its groundwater, and it has filed an original action in the United States Supreme Court to stop it. State of Mississippi v. State of…
Determining Disparate Impacts in Environmental Justice Communities: Does Friends of Buckingham v. State Air Pollution Control Board Provide the Roadmap?
It has long been recognized that minority and disadvantaged communities are subject to higher levels of pollution than more affluent non-minority areas. This fact is the basis of the…
How Are We Really Going to Get to Net Zero?
Late last month, the Washington Legislature passed the “Climate Commitment Act”, a piece of sweeping climate legislation that includes, among other provisions, an economy-wide cap-and-trade system. Washington was…
Let Me Introduce You
I wrote a limerick. I won a book. And I encountered the climate feminist — not a single person; a movement of female leaders “rooted in compassion, connection, creativity…
Transfer of NPDES Authority for Oil and Gas Discharges to Texas—The Implementation Phase
On January 15, 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) transferred Clean Water Act Section 402 authority to Texas to issue National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits for…
Critically Examining Environmental Justice Critiques of GHG Auction-Cap-and-Trade
The Biden Administration has pledged to put the nation on track to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and simultaneously to promote environmental justice. Both goals are achievable and, indeed,…
New York City is Taking on GHG Emissions from its Building Sector
In June 2017, the City of New York announced its commitment to achieve emission reductions consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement. Three months later, it released a…
A Win for the Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Legal Alliance recently won a notable victory for the Assateague Coastal Trust in a successful challenge to the Maryland Department of Environmental Protection’s issuance of a state…
Reflections from My Octopus Teacher
Since the pandemic started, like many people, I have watched way more TV than I had previously watched. Recently, my daughter suggested we watch a film entitled My Octopus…
Houston Highway Tests Biden’s Promise of Equitable Infrastructure
The Biden Administration has acknowledged the racist history of the U.S. interstate highway system and its ongoing negative impacts on many Black neighborhoods. Presidential Memorandum on Redressing Our Nation’s…
Interior Secretary Debra Halland: Restorer of Balance?
Debra Halland made history when the Senate voted 51-40 on March 15, 2021 to confirm her to be Secretary of the Department of the Interior (DOI). She is the…
Canada Given Green Light to Carbon Pricing: Why the Supreme Court of Canada’s Decision Should Matter to Those South of Our Northern Border
On March 25, 2021, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act (“GGPPA”), which establishes a national pricing benchmark for greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions. Reference…
A Property Right To Exclude Others: Cedar Point Nursery’s Implications For Regulatory Enforcement
The Supreme Court recently heard oral argument in Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid (No. 20-107), a case that has generated considerable amicus participation and press coverage. In that…
The Massachusetts Climate Bill is Very Much “Not Dead”
In January, when Governor Baker vetoed the Legislature’s effort to go big on climate, my colleague Zach Gerson made clear that the bill was not even “mostly dead.” …
Thirteen Years Later, D.C. Circuit Says “Reasonable Possibility” Provision of NSR Rule Is Good Enough
On March 5, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied a challenge to a more than decade-old EPA rule related to the records that source owners…
STEPHEN E. HERRMANN ENVIRONMENTAL WRITING AWARD
The American College of Environmental Lawyers (“ACOEL”) announces its annual Stephen E. Herrmann Environmental Writing Award (“Herrmann Award”) for the 2020-21 academic year. Stephen E. Herrmann is a…
Loving—and Living with—the Neutrality of Administrative Law
One salutary feature of administrative law—the core practice of many environmental litigators—is its predominant neutrality. There is nothing partisan about the principles that an agency must draw a “rational…
THE CLEAN POWER PLAN IS DEAD. LONG LIVE THE CLEAN POWER PLAN!
The Obama administration adopted the Clean Power Plan to reduce power sector greenhouse gas emissions in line with its commitments under the Paris Agreement climate accord. The Clean Power…
FIGMENTS OF THE IMAGINATION
I first saw Grand Coulee Dam as a 10-year old. My family and I were on our way to Spokane, Washington to attend Expo ’74, officially titled the…
Cost-Benefit Analysis Is Very Complicated — And Very Important
It’s only a slight rhetorical exaggeration to say that the limited bandwidth left to environmental issues other than climate change in recent years has been largely occupied by concerns…
Welcome to New Members
ACOEL is pleased to congratulate and welcome its 2021 class of 22 new Active Fellows and two Honorary Fellows, representing a diverse group of preeminent practitioners from around the United States.
Welcome to our new members in the class of 2021!
Upcoming Events
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