News & Insights

December 3, 2024 marks the 40th anniversary of the worst industrial accident in history.  Explosions at a pesticide manufacturing plant in Bhopal, India, released deadly methyl isocyanate into the night air, killing thousands of people instantly and injuring hundreds of thousands more.  The plant was owned by Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL), a company majority-owned […]

The American College of Environmental Lawyers is proud to announce its newly elected Officers and Regents. Learn about our 2024-2025 Officers.

Many ACOEL members have served or are serving in the Federal government either as career civil servants or as political appointees. All of us know many federal employees at EPA, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Justice, the Army Corps of Engineers and other federal agencies. We regularly work with them. They are […]

Congress should amend one word in the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 (“APA”) in order to save the entire oil and gas industry in the western United States and the federal government’s and western state’s coffers.  Litigation and judicial interpretation of this one word has frozen the federal oil and gas leasing program, impacting permits […]

On October 4, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court denied requests from states and industry groups to block the implementation of two Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) rules. The decisions did not include reasoning behind declining the stay requests. Both orders were unsigned and did not include recorded dissents. As a result of the denials, the methane […]

Sometimes, a blog just has to be written. For those of us of a certain age, Sterling Hayden’s speech as Jack D. Ripper in Dr. Strangelove concerning the Communist plot to fluoridate our water is iconic. Well, it turns out that the old adage may be true. Just because it’s a conspiracy theory doesn’t mean […]

It’s time! The 2024 ACOEL Annual Meeting is coming up fast at the JW Marriott Houston downtown on November 7-9. Houston in November is a warm, welcoming and exciting destination, and we’d love to show you everything that the fourth largest U.S. city has to offer. Our side events include a field trip to NASA, […]

Inside EPA (subscription required) reported this week that a group of Democratic state attorneys general have filed an amicus brief supporting EPA’s appeal of a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision holding that EPA had authority to include in NPDES permits “narrative prohibitions on discharges that cause or contribute to violations of applicable water quality […]

I’ve been hearing a lot lately about imposter syndrome, better referred to as “imposter experience,” and thinking about how it applies to ACOEL members. At this level in our careers, is it still an issue? Is it keeping members from fully engaging in the College? In 2015, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor discussed her […]

In the last week of August, the Biden administration finalized protection of 28 million acres of federal land and water in Alaska that is critical for birds, fish, caribou, and the communities that rely on them.  That’s an area the size of Pennsylvania that will now be protected from mining and other potentially destructive resource […]

On July 18, 2024, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decided that environmental groups were entitled to intervene in a case challenging the lawfulness of a greenhouse gas regulation because the state’s attorneys failed to raise the argument that the regulation protected environmental rights secured by Article I, Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution. Though ostensibly procedural, […]

In the 1967 movie “The Graduate,” a family friend famously tells the title character “I just want to say one word to you. Just one word. Plastics. There’s a great future in plastics. Think about it.” Well, those of us engaged in the plastic space have been thinking about it. And we have a response. […]