Laws & Regulations

"Drilling Regulators Pull Double Duty as Industry Promoters"

"State oil and gas agencies across the country are straining to prevent a flood of new drilling from harming human health and the environment. But that's not really their job. Or at least not all of it. Their job is also to promote drilling. And sometimes the law makes that their top priority."

Source: Greenwire, 12/01/2011

Calif. Law Keeps Public from Knowing About Dangerous Pipelines

The San Francisco Chronicle revealed almost all records of the state's Public Utilities Commission, which regulates pipelines, are secret — and the PUC typically asks permission from the utility companies before releasing any information. In most other states, such information is freely available to the public.

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"Behind Closed Doors" Reports on Secret Regulatory Process

The Center for Progressive Reform looked at public records on 1,080 meetings held between October 2001 and June 2011 between the White House Office of Management and Budget and lobbyists from various interest groups. Results show the Obama administration is as bad as the Bush administration when it comes to secret meetings with industry to weaken environmental health and safety regulations.

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December 9, 2011

EPA and the Economy: Seeing Green?

In this Environmental Law Institute seminar in Washington, DC  (and via teleconference), expert panelists will discuss the economic ramifications of EPA’s regulations, whether regulations create or kill jobs, and recent legislative attempts — such as the REINS Act, the Regulatory Accountability Act of 2011, and the use of the Congressional Review Act — to increase Congressional oversight and restrain EPA action.

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December 1, 2011

Federal Climate Change Adaptation: Current Efforts, Political Debates, and Future Potential

The Environmental Law Institute invites you to join University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Law professor Victor B. Flatt in Washington, DC (or via teleconference) for a review of what has happened so far in climate change adaptation at the federal level, what legal authority exists for further adaptation policy, and the current political debate surrounding the issue which could affect federal policy making.

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November 30, 2011

Harnessing NEPA to Manage Cumulative Impacts in the Ocean

This Environmental Law Institute seminar in Washington, DC (and via teleconference) will bring together experts to discuss methods for improving cumulative environmental impacts analysis and utilizing NEPA to enhance ecosystem-based, adaptive management of human activities in the ocean.

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November 30, 2011

TSCA Reform Series: Risk Management

This webinar, convened by the Environmental Law Institute, will examine reform of EPA authorities to control the sale, distribution, releases and use of chemicals. Topics to be addressed include: standard of proof; the role of cost/benefit analysis; private firm obligations; approaches to new technologies such as nanotech; and role of downstream users of chemicals.

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Deadlines for Plans To Reduce Regional Haze Finally Established

On Nov. 9, 2011, EPA signed a consent decree that requires the agency to receive from and approve a State Implementation Plan for DC, VI, and 43 states that don't have a fully approved one. Each state can determine how it wants to reduce haze. In some cases, the plan will rely on actions already taken, such as reductions in emissions from power plants or vehicles.

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Justice Dept. Ditches Its Proposal To Lie About Existence of FOIA Records

The regulatory proposal was part of a large package of revised FOIA regulations, which will go forward without it. The Justice Department did not rescind the 1987 Meese memo the proposal was based on; instead it identified ways in which agencies could be unresponsive and uninformative without actually lying.

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