The Massachusetts Appeals Court (the intermediate appellate court) has decided two cases this month addressing when a local conservation commission can impose conditions on development that affects wetlands in addition
Continue Reading Local Preemption and Wetlands in Massachusetts
A review of the environmental cases decided by the Pennsylvania appellate courts last year follows. Please forgive any omissions of cases or detail in this catalogue. Many of these cases
Continue Reading Environmental Cases in the Pennsylvania Appellate Courts in 2021
When your neighbor’s property is contaminated, the environmental regulators may want access to your property to investigate whether the contamination has affected your property. You may have business reasons not
Continue Reading Penalties Under CERCLA for Denying EPA Access to Test
On August 31, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (the highest court in the Commonwealth) decided that the local conservation commission (and presumably the state) can sue a new owner of
Continue Reading Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Allows Enforcement to Require Removal of Unauthorized Wetlands Fill for Three Years After Each New Property Transfer
Roughly 15 years ago, many Pennsylvania landowners entered into oil and gas leases in the expectation of receiving royalties for the extraction of shale gas and oil underlying their properties.
Continue Reading Is the Oil and Gas Lease Over? Court Ruling Offers Guidance
The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) has been trying for some time to require counties that operate municipal separate storm sewers (MS4s) to require “restoration” of impervious surfaces in
Continue Reading Storm Sewers and Impervious Cover in Maryland: An Update
Shareholder Libretta Stennes is quoted in a Law360 article titled “The Biggest Environmental Law Decisions Of 2020.” Click here to access the Law360 article (subscription required).
Continue Reading Libretta Stennes Quoted in Law360 Article: The Biggest Environmental Law Decisions Of 2020
The ongoing battle over Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs) – environmentally-beneficial, beyond-compliance projects that defendants agree to undertake for potential penalty mitigation in settlement of environmental enforcement actions – heated up
Continue Reading New Lawsuit Challenges DOJ Policy Prohibiting SEPs
The Pennsylvania appellate courts decided about two dozen cases that one could call “environmental” last year. A brief review follows that necessarily gives short shrift to some of these opinions.
Continue Reading Environmental Cases in the Pennsylvania Appellate Courts During 2017
Last week we examined the Sierra Club v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission decision from the D.C. Circuit holding that natural gas pipeline NEPA review must consider greenhouse gas emissions impacts
Continue Reading The Death of Public Citizen in Pipeline NEPA Analyses: Was it Ever Alive?