Filed under: Sustainability | Tags: construction, contaminated property, EPA, Renewable Energy, Sustainability Practices
EPA’s RE-Powering America’s Land Initiative, a program that has been the subject of previous posts on this blog and a Pepper Hamilton webinar, was selected May 1, 2013, for recognition as one of the Top 25 Innovations in American Government by Harvard University’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. A copy of the press release can be found here.
The RE-Powering America’s Land Initiative encourages the placement of renewable energy facilities on contaminated and remediated sites. EPA has supported this effort with revised enforcement policies, various kinds of technical assistance, and coordination of resources for project developers. Since the program began in 2009, more than 70 renewable energy projects have been developed on contaminated properties. More information about the RE-Powering program is available here.
One common complaint about U.S. EPA’s efforts to regulate greenhouse gases (“GHGs”) centers on the international scope of climate change and the corresponding problems with trying to address the issue in a single jurisdiction.
Now, with a February 19, 2013 administrative petition filed by the Institute for Policy Integrity, there is a twist to this story. (more…)
Filed under: Climate Change | Tags: Carbon, Caselaw, DOE, EPA, GHG, Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Late last year, in Coalition for Responsible Regulation v. EPA, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (by a 6 to 2 vote) rejected petitions seeking to rehear en banc a three judge panel’s unanimous per curiam decision to uphold the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Air Act (CAA) greenhouse gas “tailoring” rule. (more…)
Filed under: CleanTech, Green Building | Tags: Brownfields, EPA, Renewable Energy, Sustainability Practices
In a December 2012 Guidance Memo, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Assistant Administrators for Enforcement and Solid Waste set forth enforcement principles intended to enhance protections for developers of renewable energy projects on contaminated or previously contaminated “brownfield” properties. The new guidance clarifies that (more…)
In a recent INSIDEEPA.COM article as well as other publications, sources predict that 2013 may see increased EPA enforcement based on greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions.
With a number of GHG-related regulations already on the books and more nearing finalization, EPA’s recent focus (more…)
