Blog

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.

Climate Litigation Against the US Is Dead. How Long Will State Climate Damage Cases Survive?
BlogMarch 25, 2025
On Monday morning, the Supreme Court denied certiorari in Juliana v. United States. The cert…
 What Happens When Agency Administrators Don't Support the Agency's Statutory Mission?
BlogMarch 03, 2025
I suspect that lots of people have said it, but President Obama is often credited with saying that elections have consequences…
The Funding Games: America’s Clean Energy and Infrastructure Funding Under the Trump Administration
BlogFebruary 14, 2025
As we warned in a January 29 client alert, President Trump’s Executive Orders and the subsequent Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memorandum ordering federal agencies to “temporarily pause” any and all activities related to funding disbursements and obligations were “just the beginning…
An Impoundment By Any Other Name
BlogJanuary 29, 2025
A Monday night memorandum issued by the Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) ordered federal agencies to “temporarily pause” all federal funding and other agency activities that “may be implicated by” the slew of executive orders Trump issued last week…
Department of Energy Announces $30M “SUPERHOT” Geothermal Research Program
BlogJanuary 24, 2025
Given the favorable treatment of geothermal energy under President Trump’s initial Executive Orders, it will be interesting to see what happens to this move last week from the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy…
A Fossil-Forward U.S. Energy Policy Begins to Take Shape under Trump
BlogJanuary 23, 2025
President Trump began his second term by issuing a barrage of executive orders, memoranda, and other directives, many of which targeted U.S. energy policy and the federal employees who implement it…
Advancing U.S. Leadership in AI Infrastructure: A Focus on Geothermal Energy
BlogJanuary 16, 2025
On January 14, 2025, President Biden signed an Executive Order to advance the United States’ leadership in artificial intelligence infrastructure…
More on Climate Superfund Laws and Litigation
BlogJanuary 13, 2025
Last week, we posted about New York State’s enactment of the Climate Change Superfund Act. We promised to continue to monitor developments concerning climate superfund legislation and to update readers as necessary. It’s been less than a week, and here we are…
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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.