Law & the Environment
"The scope of this blog will be commensurate with the scope of our practice. We’ll cover climate change, renewable energy, hazardous and solid waste, clean air and water, sustainability and green design. You name it, if it’s got an acronym attached to it, we’ll cover it."
Author: Seth Jaffe is a partner and Amy Boyd and Eric Macaux are associates at Foley Hoag in Boston.
Blawg Related Categories: Energy Law • Environmental Law • Associate • Partner
Recent Posts from Law & the Environment
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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Another Front in the Climate Change Battle: NEPA Reviews
Waxman-Markey. Boxer-Kerry. Public nuisance litigation. EPA regulation under existing authority. What’s next in the arsenal of weapons against climate change? How about including climate change impacts in reviews under NEPA? In February 2008, the International Center for Technology Assessment, the…
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Climate Risk Disclosures -- Coming Soon to a 10-K Near You?
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is re-examining its rules regarding whether companies should or must disclose climate change related risks. According to an article in ClimateWire, revisions could be issued by the end of…
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GHG Nuisance Claims? Yes? No? Maybe?
Two more decisions were released last week concerning whether nuisance claims could be brought with respect to harm alleged to have resulted from private conduct contributing to climate change. First, in Village of Kivalina v. ExxonMobil…
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It Happened With Tobacco, Why Not RGGI? New York Proposes to Divert RGGI Funds to Deficit Reduction
New York Governor Patterson last week announced a plan to divert $90 million in funds raised from New York’s share of RGGI auctions to deficit reduction. The reaction was not positive from environmental NGOs, who are…