A recent decision by the Eleventh Circuit could provide guidance to defendants seeking to resolve government enforcement actions and obtain protection from future environmental citizen suits.
Continue Reading Looking for Protection from Future Environmental Citizen Suits? The Eleventh Circuit Provides Guidance

A recent Fourth Circuit decision narrowly construed the state administrative enforcement bar to the Clean Water Act citizen suit, allowing a citizen suit seeking civil penalties to proceed despite the fact the state had already issued a notice of violation for the same alleged conduct.
Continue Reading Fourth Circuit Ruling Narrowly Construes Administrative Enforcement Bar to Clean Water Act Citizen Suit

A recent federal district court decision shows how a consent decree can provide protection to responsible parties under CERCLA by precluding later-filed tort claims seeking additional relief or different remedial action.
Continue Reading Federal Court Finds Tort Claims Preempted by CERCLA Consent Decree

Last week, in Residents of Gordon Plaza, Inc. v. Cantrell, the Fifth Circuit denied a petition for rehearing en banc of a recent decision affirming the dismissal of a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) citizen suit. The key issue in the underlying appeal, 25 F.4th 288 (5th Cir. 2022), was whether certain maintenance activities qualify as a “removal” action under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). The court affirmed that the maintenance activities do indeed constitute a “removal action.” Therefore, the suit was barred under 42 U.S.C. § 6972(b)(2)(B)(iv), which precludes RCRA citizen suits where a “responsible party is diligently conducting a removal action” pursuant to a CERCLA consent decree with EPA.
Continue Reading Fifth Circuit Endorses Broad Reading of “Removal” Under CERCLA To Bar RCRA Citizen Suit

Recent federal court decisions continue to show that Article III standing can be a formidable defense to environmental citizen suits, particularly following the Supreme Court’s decision Spokeo v. Robins, 578 U.S. 330 (2016).
Continue Reading Article III Standing Still Proving to be a Formidable Defense to Environmental Citizen Suits

After a disappointing showing in Mexico’s recent mid-term elections, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) and his Morena party will face greater hurdles to unwinding Mexico’s 2013 Energy Reforms adopted by the former ruling party, the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI). Although retaining a majority in the Chamber of Deputies and gaining some new state governors, Morena lost its supermajority and, as a result, very likely also lost the opportunity to implement constitutional changes to reverse the 2013 Energy Reforms and achieve its goal of a nationalized energy sector in Mexico.
Continue Reading Could Mexico’s Mid-Term Elections Signal a Return to Energy and Environmental Policy Rationality?

On Wednesday, June 16, 2021, EPA held the first of two public “listening sessions” to inform its review of the Risk Management Program (RMP) regulations pursuant to Executive Order 13990.  According to Carlton Waterhouse, EPA Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Land & Emergency Management (OLEM), the listening sessions are “a first step in considering improvements to the RMP rule, so EPA can better address the impacts of climate change on facility safety and protect communities from chemical accidents, especially vulnerable and overburdened communities living near RMP facilities.”
Continue Reading EPA “Listening Session” on RMP Rule Foreshadows Regulatory Changes