ENVIRONMENTAL
EPA Modifies e-Manifest Regulations to Integrate More Types of Documentation
July 29, 2024
EPA is finalizing amendments to the RCRA manifest and e-Manifest regulations. These amendments include requiring hazardous waste exporters to submit export manifests to the e-Manifest system and pay the user fee; allowing international movement document confirmations to link with RCRA manifest tracking; and integrating Discrepancy, Exception, and Unmanifested Waste Reports into the e-Manifest system. Additionally, the amendments align TSCA manifest regulations for PCB wastes with RCRA regulations.
Source: EPA
White House Announces New Strategy on Plastics Pollution
July 23, 2024
The Interagency Policy Committee on Plastic Pollution and a Circular Economy, which comprises experts across federal agencies and within the Executive Office of the President of the United States, released "Mobilizing Federal Action on Plastic Pollution: Progress, Principles, and Priorities" (Plastic Strategy) on July 19, 2024.
This Holland & Knight alert outlines how the Plastic Strategy defines single-use plastics and provides a deep dive into the three main components outlined in the Plastic Strategy: progress, principals and priorities.
Source: Holland & Knight
Highlights from the SEC Climate-Related Disclosures Rule
July 18, 2024
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has adopted the long-awaited rule on climate-related financial disclosures. The SEC’s Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors requires registrants to disclose certain information about climate-related risks that pertain to a company's business.
In this article, we uncover the key aspects and implementation timeline, so that you can figure out what this means for your organization. We also pulled out key highlights in this infographic.
Source: 3Degrees
2024 Midyear PFAS Regulatory Update: Final Rules Recently Issued by EPA and What's to Come
July 18, 2024
In the first half of 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has taken steps toward implementing several regulatory commitments regarding per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) made in the 2021 PFAS Strategic Road Map.
This Holland & Knight alert provides a summary of key PFAS regulatory developments and looks at what to expect later this year.
Source: Holland & Knight
Dissonance in Climate Disclosure: the SEC, EU, California, and ISSB Regimes
July 11, 2024
The global push for corporate climate disclosure has gained significant momentum in recent years, with major financial centers and regulatory bodies introducing new rules and frameworks. However, this increased activity has led to a puzzling divergence in approaches, particularly regarding the disclosure of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. While there is broad agreement on the importance of climate-related financial disclosures, regulators and standard-setters have taken notably different paths in implementing these requirements, especially concerning Scope 3 emissions. This divergence is particularly striking given the shared goals of enhancing transparency, combating greenwashing, and accelerating the transition to a low-carbon economy. The puzzle lies in understanding why, despite these common objectives, major jurisdictions have arrived at such different regulatory solutions. This situation raises important questions about the feasibility, effectiveness, and potential impacts of various disclosure regimes.
Implications of Recent Supreme Court Decisions on Administrative, Environmental, and Natural Resources Law
July 3, 2024
The final days of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 term saw the release of several decisions that may – or may not, depending on one’s perspective and desired strategy – hold significant implications for administrative law practice as well as the interpretation and enforcement of environmental and natural resource law (among other areas of law). These include Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, Relentless, Inc. v. Department of Commerce, Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy, and Corner Post, Inc. v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, along with Ohio. v. Environmental Protection Agency (in which B&D successfully represented a petitioner in securing stay of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Good Neighbor Rule). Major media outlets have covered each case and its potential ramifications at a high level. B&D provided summaries of these cases earlier this year in our Litigation Look Ahead series.
While each case may hold unique implications on its own, in this overview we highlight some of the potential impacts the cases could have when taken collectively. While the long-term impacts are unknown and may play out in various ways depending on the statute, venue, and case in question, these decisions and others in the 2022 and 2023 Supreme Court terms have continued a trend by the Court towards deregulation at the federal government level and consolidation of authority in the judicial branch to adjudicate regulatory questions. This poses both challenges and opportunities for the regulated community.
Source: Beveridge & Diamond PC
What is Circularity?
July 3, 2024
Circularity refers to practices that optimize resource use and minimize waste across the entire production and consumption cycle, emphasizing sustainability and economic efficiency.
Ever since the Industrial Revolution, we’ve consumed products in largely the same way. A company will extract or collect the resources to create a product, which consumers then buy, use, and ultimately throw away. This is known as a linear model of mass consumption.
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We know now that this model of consumption has contributed to the changes in our climate that, if left unaddressed, threaten to make life much more difficult in coming decades. Every year, some $2.6 trillion worth of material in fast-moving consumer goods—80 percent of the material value—is thrown away and never recovered.
Circularity presents an alternative to the linear model. In a circular economy, resources can be used over and over again, often for the same or similar purposes.
Source: McKinsey & Company
Energy & Environmental Legal News from the National Law Review
July 2, 2024
The Supreme Court of the United States’ recent ruling in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo dealt a significant blow to the power of federal agencies by ending the 40-year-old precedent commonly known as “Chevron deference.” Loper has now removed the judicial mandate that courts apply “Chevron deference” and defer to agencies on the interpretation of ambiguous language in laws pertaining to their authority. While it is unclear what impact this ruling will have in environmental enforcement cases as well as environmental regulations, federal judges will now have the power to decide what a law means for themselves, expanding the federal bench’s role in enforcement actions and policymaking.
Source: The National Law Review
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SOCIAL
Two Hazmat "Rules of the Future" Revealed
July 22, 2024
US DOT PHMSA plans to initiate two forward-looking hazardous materials rulemakings in 2025 that will address continuing advances in transportation technology.
One rule would address transportation of hazmat using autonomous systems (e.g., drones). The other would streamline and clarify the requirements for transporting “spacecraft and space-related hazardous materials.”
Source: Lion
HazCom Changes In Effect TODAY—Your Ultimate Guide
July 19, 2024
Effective today, July 19, OSHA has revised the Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) to better align it with the Globally Harmonized System or GHS. HCS updates in effect today include new and adjusted hazard classes and categories, container labels, Safety Data Sheet requirements, and more.
Source: Lion
Proposed OSHA Heat Rule Available Now
July 8, 2024
OSHA submitted a draft version of the Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings proposed rule to the Federal Register, seemingly not a moment too soon. On Sunday, July 7, 2024, Las Vegas hit a record-high temperature of 120°F, breaking its old record by three degrees.
If finalized, OSHA’s rule would require employers to identify indoor and outdoor heat hazards, and develop a work site heat injury and illness prevention plan (HIIPP).
Source: OSHA
GOVERNANCE
How Companies Can Prepare for the Next Round of DEI Litigation
July 7, 2024
Within weeks of the Supreme Court’s decision striking down affirmative action in college admissions last year, Republican attorneys general for 13 states sent a letter to Fortune 100 CEOs condemning their DEI initiatives in the workplace. They threatened to hold companies accountable for “illegal preferences” in employment and contracting practices.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has made good on that threat by filing the first lawsuit by a state Attorney General against a company for allegedly violating the Missouri Human Rights Act. Bailey asserts that IBM subjects job applicants to unlawful racial and gender quotas and bases employees’ pay and employment statuses on whether they participate in DEI practices that he alleges are discriminatory.
What the Supreme Court’s Loper Bright Decision Means for ESG, and Other Key Trends
July 4, 2024
For companies, navigating the ESG landscape means balancing various stakeholder demands, keeping abreast of rapidly-changing new laws and regulations, and calibrating contradictory litigation risks. Last week, this already-difficult landscape was complicated further by the Supreme Court’s June 28 decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, [1] overturning the Court’s long-held approach to regulatory deference embodied in the 40-year old Chevron doctrine. The Loper Bright decision could have significant impacts on the future of environmental and ESG regulation, creating new hurdles for agency rulemaking around these emerging issues, and calling into question current administrative actions.
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