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Law and the Environment

Our blog provides perspective on developments in environmental law and policy - which developments may matter to you, and how and why they matter. Whether you are a manufacturer or a power plant developer, a renewable energy developer or hoping to be a renewable energy consumer, this blog offers commentary on current issues that are important to your business.

How Much Deference to Agency NEPA Decisions After Seven County? Definitely
Blog January 08, 2026
Judges inclined to support agency decision making would point to the deference given to agency decisions under the APA, while judges unsympathetic to the agency position would point to the limits on deference to the agencies…
SPEED Act Passes House: Streamlining NEPA, Tightening Timelines, and Reframing Litigation
Blog January 05, 2026
The House of Representatives has passed the Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development Act (the “SPEED Act,” H.R. 4776), which now moves to the Senate…
Supreme Court Holds That Agencies Have “Substantial” Discretion to Omit Upstream and Downstream Projects from Environmental Reviews
Blog May 30, 2025
On May 29, 2025, a unanimous Supreme Court (voting 8-0, with Justice Gorsuch recused) held that federal agencies need not consider the environmental effects of “upstream” and “downstream” projects that are separate in time or place from the project under review…
If CEQ No Longer Implements NEPA, Is that Good or Bad for Project Developers?
Blog November 14, 2024
Earlier this week, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the National Environmental Policy Act does not authorize the Council on Environmental Quality to issue binding regulations governing how federal agencies must implement NEPA…
Biden Expands Consideration of Social Cost of Carbon by Federal Agencies
Blog September 22, 2023
On September 21, 2023, the Biden administration outlined plans to expand federal agencies' consideration of the social cost of carbon—a metric for the economic cost of each additional ton of carbon dioxide emitted to the atmosphere. This announcement tilts the balance of cost-benefit analyses in favor of activities that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and it could have widespread effects for entities that receive federal funding or are subject to federal regulation…
Another NEPA Obstacle To Coal Mining
Blog February 17, 2023
Last week, Judge Donald Malloy vacated the Environmental Assessment for the Bull Mountains Mine No. 1 in central Montana.  Judge Malloy had already vacated the EA once; when the 9th Circuit affirmed Judge Malloy's decision that the EA violated NEPA, it remanded the case for new findings as to whether vacatur would be appropriate.  The default rule is that when agency action has been struck down…
Does Environmental Review of Projects Needed for a Net-Zero Economy Lead to a Death By a Thousand Cuts?
Blog February 08, 2023
Earlier this week, the decision in Bartell Ranch v. McCullough generally supported the Bureau of Land Management's review under NEPA and related statutes of a lithium mine near Thacker Pass, Nevada.  If approved, Thacker Pass would be the largest lithium mine in the United States.  The decision and the entire review of the mine are important, given how controversial large mining projects can be and how important lithium and other minerals are to building a zero-emission economy…
NEPA Is Indeed Posing a Really Big Obstacle to Coal Mining On Public Lands
Blog August 15, 2022
On Friday, I posted about a decision invalidating BLM Resource Manage Plans for failure to comply with NEPA.  My caption was “NEPA Is Still Going to Pose an Obstacle to Leasing Public Lands for Fossil Fuel Extraction.”  Little did I know how prescient I was, because later on Friday, Judge Brian Morris – the same judge who invalidated the RMPs – went farther and reinstated the moratorium on leasing of public lands for coal mining that had been implemented by then-Secretary Jewell in 2016…
How To Straighten the Long and Winding Road that We Call NEPA
Blog October 11, 2021
So CEQ has proposed to amend the NEPA regulations in order to eliminate some of the changes made by the Trump Administration in 2020.  Important changes include: explicit consideration of indirect impacts renewed emphasis on consideration of cumulative impacts elimination of the requirement that there be “a reasonably close causal relationship” between a proposed action and a potential impact…
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ABOUT

In today’s fast changing world, almost all of us get our news – including our news about developments in environmental law and policy – electronically. This blog is not intended to be a substitute for the BNA™, or Greenwire™, or Google™, although we do hope that we will be able on occasion to let you know about issues that haven’t yet come to your attention.

What we really want to accomplish is to be able to provide some perspective on those developments. We’ll try to tell you which developments may matter to you. And why they matter. And how they matter. Whether you are a manufacturer or a power plant developer, whether you are a renewable energy developer or hoping to be a renewable energy consumer, whether you are a municipality or public agency or university, we want to comment on current issues in a way that is useful to you in your business.

Frankly, this blog also provides us with the opportunity to introduce you to Foley Hoag’s Environmental Practice Group. Our practice has been New England’s preeminent environmental practice for the past twenty years. We have the depth and capacity to handle the wide array of environmental issues that can arise in the course of your business. We will work with you to resolve any environmental issues that must be addressed in order for you to achieve your business goals – from permitting new projects to cost-effective cleanup of urban Brownfields properties to implementation of cost-effective due diligence in the support of acquisitions to navigating the emerging world of climate change regulations.

We will also assist you in the defense and prosecution of environmental litigation. As a result of our service to our clients, we have attained a national reputation in environmental matters. Our lawyers have built an impressive record resolving environmental disputes at the negotiating table and in the courtroom, and a number of our cases have produced precedents of national importance.

The scope of this blog will be commensurate with the scope of our practice. We’ll cover climate change, renewable energy, hazardous and solid waste, clean air and water, sustainability and green design. You name it, if it’s got an acronym attached to it, we’ll cover it.

As the headline indicates, we want to inform, update, comment, and discuss. In other words, while we’re going to enjoy posting, we’ll enjoy the blog more – and its usefulness will increase – if we hear from you also. Please comment on the blog entries. Let us know about developments we missed or implications of our discussions that we did not consider.

We look forward to the conversation.