Wednesday, March 10, 2021
The Biden administration is seeking to reverse the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) controversial prohibition on the use of Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs) in civil settlements imposed by the Trump administration. The prohibition on the DOJ’s discretion to use SEPs in settlements of environmental cases was announced in a memorandum issued by Jeffrey Bossert Clark, Assistant Attorney General of the Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) of the DOJ, on March 12, 2020. AAG Clark had expanded the rationale for disallowing the use of SEPs in new policy memoranda issued in his last days at the DOJ: “Guidance Regarding Newly Promulgated Rule Restricting Third-Party Payments, 28 C.F.R. § 50.28,” January 13, 2021, and “Equitable Mitigation in Civil Environmental Enforcement Cases,” January 12, 2021. AAG Clark’s position on SEPs was also the subject of the DOJ’s regulation promulgated in December 2020, 28 C.F.R. §
TSCA/FIFRA/TRI
“Environmental Justice: Operationalizing TSCA to Fulfill Its Destiny,” By Lynn L. Bergeson For The American College Of Environmental Lawyers (ACOEL) Blog: The Biden Administration has embraced environmental justice with unprecedented gusto. In its July 2020 Plan to Secure Environmental Justice and Equitable Economic Opportunity, the Biden Administration sets out in broad terms how it intends to use an “All-of-Government” approach to “rooting out systemic racism in our laws, policies, institutions, and hearts.” Read the full article online.
EPA Issues Final Compliance Guide Addressing Surface Coatings Under PFAS SNUR: On January 19, 2021, EPA announced the availability of a final compliance guide that outlines which imported articles are covered by EPA’s July 2020 final significant new use rule (SNUR) that prohibits companies from manufacturing, importing, processing, or using certain long-chain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) without prior EP
To embed, copy and paste the code into your website or blog:
Late last week, the Justice Department withdrew nine Trump-era policy and guidance documents that shaped how the Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) enforced environmental law during the past several years. The memo, issued by Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jean Williams,
1 follows President Biden’s Day One executive order that directs federal agencies to immediately review and take action, as necessary any agency actions that conflict with the new administration’s “important national objectives” to confront climate change, prioritize environmental justice and protect human health and the environment.
Wednesday, February 17, 2021
Biden-Harris Administration Freezes Rules Pending Review
On January 20, 2021, Ronald A. Klain, Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff, issued a memorandum regarding “Regulatory Freeze Pending Review.” 86 Fed. Reg. 7424. For rules that have not yet taken effect, the memorandum directs the heads of executive departments and agencies to consider postponing the rules’ effective dates for 60 days from the date of the memorandum for the purpose of reviewing any questions of fact, law, and policy the rules may raise. For postponed rules, during the 60-day period, the memorandum asks agencies to consider opening a 30-day comment period to allow interested parties to provide comments about issues of fact, law, and policy raised by those rules, and consider pending petitions for reconsideration involving such rules. Where necessary to continue to review these questions of fact, law, and policy, agencies should consider further delaying, o