On August 8, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, in a decision affirming the final energy efficiency regulations issued by the Department of Energy (DOE) for commercial refrigeration equipment, held that DOE’s use of a measure of carbon emissions known as the “Social Cost of Carbon” was…
Also on August 9, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit held that the administrative law judges (ALJ) employed by the Securities and Exchange Commission were not “Officers” as that term is employed by the Constitution because their actions were also subject to review by the Commission. …
The Nevada State Contractors Board’s annual Contractor Training Day is scheduled for August 23 from 8:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. at 5400 Mill Street, Reno, NV 89502 and September 13 at the Clark County Building Department in Las Vegas. The free half-day event will cover (1) Liens and Contract Law and (2)…
On August 8, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit released an opinion rejecting several challenges to environmental permits and authorizations granted by environmental regulatory agencies in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The consolidated cases are Delaware Riverkeeper Network, et al., v. Secretary Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and New Jersey…
The state and federal appellate courts have issued a surprising number of significant rulings in a variety of environmental and administrative law controversies in late July and early August: On August 8, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a very long (127 pages) ruling affirming in all…
The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was urged this week by some in Congress to speed up its rulemaking aimed at arbitration provisions in consumer contracts used by companies offering payment services or financial products to consumers. In May, the preliminary rule was released. In Arbitration Provisions Mauled by…
Today, we published our alert Supreme Court’s Environmental and Administrative Law Decisions in 2015-2016 Term. In the Advisory, we provide a brief report on some of the significant U.S. Supreme Court actions from January through June 2016 related to environmental and administrative law. *Pillsbury summer clerk Brittney Sandler made significant contributions…
On July 29, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit released a very long (156 pages) opinion essentially upholding every regulatory decision made by the EPA in three major Clean Air Act (CAA) rulemakings: the “Major Boilers Rule”; the “Area Boilers” rule; and the “Commercial/Industrial Solid Waste Incinerators” (CISWI)…
My colleagues Mark Elliott, Kevin Fong and I, in Lesson of Ninth Circuit CERCLA Decision: Prepare to Prove Recoverable Costs, discuss the lesson to be learned from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ June 13, 2016 decision in Whittaker Corp. v. United States. The Ninth Circuit held that a party which…
My colleague Matt Morrison today published a client alert titled U.S. EPA Finds Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Aircraft Endanger Public Health—a First Step in Adoption of New ICAO Standards. The Alert discusses the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) issuance of a finding that aircraft greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions endanger public health…