On July 31, California’s local Air Quality Management Districts (AQMD) took an important step in reducing the disproportionate rate at which disadvantaged communities are affected by greenhouse gas emissions. As a part of the requirements included in Assembly Bill no. 617 (AB 617), AQMDs compiled a preliminary list of at-risk communities within their jurisdictions that will be included in the newly-established Community Air Protection Program (CAPP). The California Air Resources […]

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On June 7, 2018, the EPA issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to announce that it was considering new ways to increase consistency and transparency in its consideration of costs and benefits involved in regulatory decisions, and is seeking public input. Many environmental statutes, such as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Safe Drinking Water Act, require the EPA to consider the costs and benefits […]

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Many states have counterpart statutes to the federal CERCLA, or Superfund, statute.  Though these statutes generally have the same purpose: to ensure the cleanup of sites contaminated with hazardous substances and to allow for recovery of natural resource damages caused by those substances, and though most state statutes are “modeled” after CERCLA, many state statutes have specific statutory language or provisions that differ.  This is true of the State of […]

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The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard oral argument in Washington v. United States, a case involving the off-reservation fishing rights of 21 Native American tribes in the Pacific Northwest. At issue are culverts built by the state of Washington under roadways it constructed across salmon-bearing streams. The tribes allege the culverts allow the passage of water, but not the passage of salmon, and thus are an unlawful interference with tribal […]

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