When the United States Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") updates important guidance materials it hasn't touched in more than 15 years, people start to take notice! This past summer, the EPA released its long-overdue Enforcement Discretion Guidance Regarding...
Firm News
SCOTUS To Review Montana CERCLA Case About Preemption Of State Common Law Claims
Under what circumstances does federal environmental law trump state common law? This issue is at the heart of a closely watched case to be considered by the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS). On June 10, 2019, SCOTUS announced that it would review a Montana Supreme Court...
NYC Poised to Lead on Climate Change Policy with Its Own “Green New Deal”
New York City has taken the lead to combat climate change with unprecedented to reduce the City's carbon emissions. On April 22, 2019 Mayor de Blasio announced New York City's "Green New Deal," an ambitious $14 billion plan to attack global warming and combat climate...
Article 78 Challenge to SEQRA/CEQR NegDec Fails On Statute of Limitations Grounds
It's been 15 days: Do you know if your petition has been served? In a recent case seeking to challenge the approval of a Brooklyn project, the project's opponents learned that time matters, and courts have a difficult time finding "good cause" when the complaint is...
DEC Penalties for Failure to Renew PBS Facility Registration
Money can't buy happiness, but is there any reason to waste it on penalties for failing to register a petroleum bulk storage (PBS) facility? That's what some building owners just learned: three recent cases provide some insight into how the New York Department of...
NYC Commercial Waste Zoning
New York City - the city that never sleeps! At least, that's the case for the drivers working for the City's 90 private carters, those who travel long, overlapping, and sometimes unsafe routes to service the City's 100,000 commercial businesses. The commercial waste...
NYS Law Requires Online Posting of Emerging Contaminant Info
New York is notoriously proud of its tap water. But what happens when chemicals are discovered in the water that threaten its public health? This is precisely the problem Governor Andrew M. Cuomo has faced since scientists used new analytical capabilities to detect...
5.5 Things to Know About Subsurface Environmental Investigations (Phase II ESAs) – Part 2 of 2
In our last post, we began to review the basic considerations for a Phase II ESA. We wanted you to have a chance to absorb a lot of complicated information. So we saved some of the good points: here are the rest of the 5.5 things you should know about Phase II ESAs....
5.5 Things to Know About Subsurface Environmental Investigations (Phase II ESAs) – Part 1 of 2
You're the prospective purchaser of commercial real estate, in contract. Your environmental lawyer (or environmental engineer or consultant) tells you "we should perform a Phase II Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) based on the recognized environmental conditions...
Proposed Amendment to New York’s Low Emission Vehicle Greenhouse Gas Standards
While the current Administration in Washington is taking steps to roll back environmental progress, for example, by weakening greenhouse gas (GHG) emission rules, by abandoning more stringent emissions standards on passenger automobiles, and by permitting energy...
