View Recent Blog Posts in Environmental Regulation

  • By: Bryant Bremer and Taylor Dunne While environmental justice initiatives may have experienced a recent administrative curtailment at the direction of the executive branch,[1] recent litigation trends show that EJ-related issues are far from moot. On Wednesday, April 9, 2025, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed the District Court's dismissal of Appellants' EJ-related claims regarding racially... Continue Reading...
  • By: Bryant Bremer, Pamela Mascari, Lauren Rucinski, Michael Doggett and Taylor Dunne On March 12, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") announced its deregulatory agenda.[1] Although most of the 31 actions identified by the EPA will require formal notice and comment rulemaking, with litigation ensuing, Wednesday's announcement makes good on the Trump Administration's promises to roll back environmental regulation.[2] Of particular significance to the chemical manufacturing... Continue Reading...
  • By: Andre Bellefontaine, Josiah Kollmeyer, Victor Suane and Richard Pabst A pair of recent decisions from the US Supreme Court and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals signals a trend by the judiciary to closely scrutinize agency rulings where, in the past, courts have traditionally maintained a laissez-faire approach. In Ohio v. EPA, the Supreme Court ruled that an agency action qualifies as arbitrary or... Continue Reading...
  • By: Michael Doggett Late last month, the U.S. Eastern District of New York dismissed a suit by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") against eBay claiming that it sold products that are prohibited under federal environmental statutes.[1] The Court held that eBay is not a "seller" of prohibited products under either the Clean Air Act ("CAA") or the... Continue Reading...
  • By: Sydney St. Pierre and Phyllis Sims The 2024 Regular Session of the Louisiana Legislature ended on June 3, 2024. The first regular session of the new term saw legislation on several hot-button issues, including criminal justice reform, reorganization of state governmental entities, insurance reform, education, public access to government records, public libraries, protection of the Louisiana seafood industry, and improvements to... Continue Reading...
  • By: Josiah Kollmeyer, Andre Bellefontaine and Lauren Rucinski On June 28, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo[1] definitively overturned Chevron deference[2], and held that, when reviewing agency action under the Administrative Procedure Act, courts "must exercise their independent judgment" and "may not defer to an agency interpretation of the law simply because a statute is ambiguous."[3] Chevron... Continue Reading...
  • By: Lauren Rucinski Today, April 30, 2024, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) revised its National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) implementing procedures to revise categorical exclusions for upgrading and rebuilding powerlines and for solar photovoltaic systems. Under the new rulemaking, environmental reviews will not automatically be required for projects related to solar installations. The rulemaking also adds a... Continue Reading...
  • By: Troy Charpentier, Mark Doré, William Huguet, Matthew Smith and Kyle Polozola On December 28, 2023, the United States Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") signed a final rule delegating primacy over the issuance and enforcement of permits for Class VI Underground Injection Control ("UIC") wells under the Safe Drinking Water Act to the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources ("LDNR").[1] This decision came after a lengthy review process lasting... Continue Reading...
  • By: Louis Grossman and Michael Levatino Kean Miller is closely following the recent challenges to the Chevron Deference standard established by the Supreme Court in Chevron, U.S.A., Inc. v. Nat. Res. Def. Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837 (1984). As applied by federal courts for the last four decades, the Chevron Deference standard first requires that a court determine whether a statute... Continue Reading...
  • By: Kean Miller Most litigants in Louisiana know that the usual tort claim has a prescriptive period (i.e., statute of limitation) of one year. This one-year clock begins ticking from the day injury or damage is sustained.[1] But when exactly someone sustains an injury can be a tricky question to answer. If I am unknowingly exposed to a... Continue Reading...
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