President Biden signs the bipartisan infrastructure bill into law, plants like hemp and algae could help minimize the environmental footprint of high-rise buildings, construction groups sue over the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) new vaccine rule, and more. The global architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill presented Urban Sequoia…
We interrupt our usual scrutiny of the courts to focus (mostly) on the important developments in notices and rulemaking issued by and concerning federal regulatory agencies and departments in the past several weeks. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) On August 30, 2021, the U.S. District Court for Arizona, in a summary…
The House of Representatives passes the Senate version of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), the construction industry continues to struggle with labor shortages, effects of climate change put the built environment at risk, and more. The House passed the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act on Friday…
Amenity-rich buildings become a key focus in enticing employees back into the office, supply chain links are strained by a lack of storage capacity in warehouses and port areas, green lease signings are on the uptick, and more. In an effort to draw employees back into the office and retain…
Environmental Justice, as an urgent policy priority of the Federal Government, dates back to 1994, and President Clinton’s issuance of Executive Order 12898. This order directed federal agencies to identify and address, as appropriate, “the disproportionately high and adverse human health and environment effects of its many programs, policies, and procedures…
Selected federal regulatory actions taken or proposed by several federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency: EPA Actions On September 15, 2021, EPA’s Water Office issued a memo rescinding a January 2021 guidance document that purported to provide the regulatory community with EPA’s understanding of the Supreme Court’s Clean Water…
On August 16, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the lower court’s ruling that the Idaho property of Michael and Chantell Sackett was a regulated wetlands under the then-controlling 1977 EPA rules defining “waters of the United States,” and that the Sacketts dredging and filling…
Presidential Executive Order 14008, “Tackling the Climate Crisis,” a long and unusually detailed Executive Order published in the Federal Register on February 1, 2021 (see 86 FR 7619), has generated considerable discussion and commentary. Below, I briefly outline its provisions. This EO describes the “climate crisis” in existential terms: “There…
Several decisions of interest were issued in the 2020 term, which stretched from October 2020 until early July 2021. This review will concentrate on environmental and administrative law cases. Texas v. New Mexico On December 14, 2020, the Court issued its ruling in an Original Action. Water is precious in…
This is a brief account of some of the important environmental and administrative law cases recently decided. THE U.S. SUPREME COURT Pakdel v. City and County of San Francisco On June 28, 2021, the Supreme Court decided this regulatory “takings” case, and, in a Per Curium opinion, reversed the Ninth Circuit’s…