Law & the Environment

Recent Posts from Law & the Environment

• More on Building Standards; Client Rant Edition

  Following my post yesterday about the E.U. construction standards directive, I received the following two emails from my friend and client Lydia Duff. Given what people until very recently were paying for in their home…

• I Have Seen the Future and It Is Zero-Energy Buildings

  I spoke a few weeks ago at a NAIOP event concerning implementation of the Massachusetts Global Warming Solutions Act. During that talk, I described the GWSA as “the future of everything.” Why? Because to achieve even medium-term greenhouse…

• Today's Betting Line: EPA Regulation Before Legislation is Enacted

  Boston Celtics’ fans know the phrase “fiddlin’ and diddlin.” Well, the Senate continues to fiddle and diddle over climate change legislation. Those who have worked with Gina McCarthy, current EPA air chief, know that she has probably…

• Desperate Times, Desperate Measures? Massachusetts Environmental Agencies Look to Reinvent Themselves

  On the be careful what you wish for front, Massachusetts Energy and Environment Secretary Ian Bowles announced yesterday an effort to examine “options for changes in administrative structures and programs to meet environmental goals in…

• More on Local Climate Regulation

  My post on the Portland Climate Action Plan has gotten some reaction, which I take as a good thing. For as reasoned a defense of local climate action as is possible in the space of a…

• Another Corner Heard From: Portland (Oregon) Releases a New Climate Action Plan

  Last week, the City of Portland, Oregon (together with Multnomah County) released an updated Climate Action Plan. The Plan presents a number of aggressive goals and targets, with ultimate goals of GHG reductions of 40% by…

• SEC Reverses Bush Policy on Climate Risk in Shareholder Resolutions

  The US Securities and Exchange Commission released a staff bulletin yesterday that reverses a Bush administration policy that excluded shareholder resolutions which asked companies to disclose their climate-related financial exposure. While not the rule-making we discussed…

• Perhaps The Next Coastal Project Won't Take 10 Years: The First Circuit Preempts Some State Authority

  Public and private developers spend a lot of time talking about NIMBY, or Not In My Backyard. With the increasing number of coastal development projects, ranging from wind farms to LNG facilities to plans for casinos,…

• EPA's Greenhouse Gas Tailoring Rule Hits the Street

  A few weeks ago, we noted EPA’s release of its long-awaited “Tailoring Rule,” specifying how EPA would apply its PSD program under existing Clean Air Act authority to greenhouse gases, once they definitively become a…

• Senate Climate Bill, Now Fortified with Numbers

  The Chairman's Mark of the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act (S. 1733), released late Friday night by Senate Environment & Public Works Committee Chair Barbara Boxer, fills in some of the details left…