Legal Analysis The Downfall of the “Secret Science” Rule, and What It Means for Biden’s Environmental Agenda Under President Trump, EPA intended to limit which scientific studies it will consider, which would have undermined settled conclusions about the health impacts of air pollution. This is Part 4 […] March 5, 2021
Legal Analysis New Cost-Benefit Rule Hampers EPA’s Ability to Regulate Harmful Air Pollutants This analysis is a paraphrased excerpt from Hannah Perls’ article Deconstructing Environmental Deregulation under the Trump Administration, published in the Spring 2021 Vermont Law Review. A crucial tool in the […] January 12, 2021
CleanLaw Podcast CleanLaw: Next Generation Environmental Regulations, Joe Goffman interviews Cynthia Giles Our executive director Joe Goffman speaks again with Cynthia Giles, former Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. They discuss her ongoing work examining how well environmental rules do in ensuring compliance, where they fail, and how to ensure they succeed. November 19, 2020
Legal Analysis EPA Undermines its Own Environmental Justice Programs EPA’s EJ efforts to-date have been insufficient to address the scale and severity of environmental injustice in the US. November 12, 2020
Legal Analysis 40 Law Scholars Oppose EPA’s Changes to the Ozone Standards-Setting and Science-Advising Process In August, EPA proposed to leave unchanged the current National Ambient Air Quality Standards. The proposal defied accumulating scientific evidence that tightening the standards would be critical to providing adequate […] October 13, 2020
Legal Analysis EPA’s Treatment of the Press EPA leadership has launched continual verbal attacks on the news outlets that report on the agency’s activities, even though both the public and agency staff themselves rely on reporting published […] September 18, 2020
Legal Analysis DOJ Phases Out Supplemental Environmental Projects in Environmental Enforcement SEPs allow EPA to act to protect public health and the environment in ways that couldn’t otherwise be achieved through traditional penalties, which don’t themselves remedy the harms that non-compliance with pollution and waste control requirements cause. August 6, 2020
CleanLaw Podcast CleanLaw: Joe Goffman Speaks with Cynthia Giles about EPA’s Enforcement During Covid-19 Joe speaks with Cynthia about EPA’s rollback of environmental enforcement in a COVID-19 enforcement discretion policy issued at the end of March 2020. June 29, 2020
Legal Analysis Final SAB Report Highlights Missing Justification for EPA’s “Secret Science” Proposal On April 24, 2020, EPA’s Science Advisory Board (SAB) published its final report for the agency’s proposed rule, Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science. This proposal requires EPA to ensure that […] May 8, 2020