Green Building Law Update

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Tag Archives: Kaplow

Why Land Subsidence Matters More Than Sea Level Rise

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Climate Change, Environmental, resilience, Sustainability
When we talk about “sea level rise,” most people immediately think of melting polar ice and warming oceans. But along much of the United States’ Atlantic coast, especially in and around the Chesapeake Bay, that narrative only tells part of the story. Emerging science shows that land subsidence, the sinking or lowering of the land … Continue Reading

A More Efficacious Way to Measure Greenhouse Gas Emissions

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Climate Change, Federal, GHG, greenhouse gas
As an environmental attorney who spends much of my time advising business owners, I have learned an immutable truth: markets work best when the rules are clear, fair, and grounded in reality. Environmental policy is no exception. Contrary to the prevailing narrative in popular media, the global business community has not uniformly shifted away from … Continue Reading

United States Sues Morgan Hill and Petaluma over All Electric Building Laws

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Codes and Regulations, Energy, Federal
On January 5, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the cities of Morgan Hill (Santa Clara County) and Petaluma (Sonoma County), California, challenging local ordinances that effectively ban natural gas infrastructure and gas powered appliances in new buildings. The complaint, docketed as Case 5:26-cv-00056 in the U.S. District Court for the … Continue Reading

WARNING: This Product Contains an Ingredient Not Recommended for Human Consumption …

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Codes and Regulations, Environmental, State
Businesses across the country face a consequential legal and commercial crossroads as Texas Senate Bill 25, branded the Make Texas Healthy Again Act, thrusts state level food labeling regulation into uncharted constitutional and regulatory territory. The stakes are high: companies that manufacture, market, or sell food products may soon confront unprecedented warning requirements that could … Continue Reading

Microplastics – The Next Environmental Crisis We Can No Longer Ignore

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Environmental
For decades, environmental law has been built around visible harms: smokestacks, discharge pipes, landfills, and oil spills. We regulate what we can see. Microplastics represent the opposite problem, an environmental threat that is largely invisible, already ubiquitous, and increasingly understood to be biologically active. In many contemporary risk assessments, microplastics now rank among the top … Continue Reading

2025 Year in Review of Environmental Blog Posts

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Climate Change, Energy, Environmental, greenwashing, Legal, wind turbine
As 2025 draws to a close, environmental law once again proved to be less about ideology and more about adaptation. The environmental issues that resonated most this year, from political, cultural to economic, reflected in our Top 10 most read blog posts, were those that sat squarely at the intersection of regulation, innovation, and market … Continue Reading

Extended Producer Responsibility – A Rapidly Changing Environmental Landscape in Maryland and Elsewhere

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Codes and Regulations, recycling
Extended Producer Responsibility laws, often referred to simply as EPR, represent one of the most consequential shifts in U.S. environmental policy affecting businesses from manufacturers and multi family residential building owners to distributors and retailers. These laws fundamentally change who pays for, manages, and is accountable for the end of life of consumer product packaging, … Continue Reading

Reopening a 10 Year Old Bankruptcy for Environmental Claims to Bring Finality to CERCLA Liability

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Codes and Regulations, Federal
Environmental and real estate practitioners spend a great deal of time counseling clients on how to avoid or allocate liability under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA a/k/a Superfund). For purchasers of property, the Phase I Environmental Site Assessment is often the talisman performed to establish the innocent landowner or bona fide … Continue Reading

Federal Bank Regulators Withdraw Climate Mandates

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Climate Change, Codes and Regulations, Federal
On October 16, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve Board, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency jointly “.. announced the withdrawal of their interagency Principles for Climate-Related Financial Risk Management for Large Financial Institutions.” This is a positive and, frankly, refreshing development, a rare instance of government appropriately narrowing its … Continue Reading

From Boilerplate to Benchmarking: The New Era of Climate Smart Leases

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Codes and Regulations, Energy, GHG, Green Building, greenhouse gas
It would be convenient if this were only a prospective conversation about the leases you are about to sign. It isn’t. Tens of thousands of existing leases (many with long renewal terms) are for premises that are subject to greenhouse gas disclosure and reduction laws already on the books and now being phased into effect. … Continue Reading

Inhalers and the Planet: Breathing Room in Environmental Policy

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Environmental, greenhouse gas, Sustainability
The mainstream press was quick to report this week on a startling new study out of UCLA: inhalers used to treat asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) produce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 530,000 cars on the road each year. Published on October 6, 2025, the study quantified that inhalers approved for asthma and … Continue Reading

Maryland Should Allow Off Grid Electricity Providers, as Should the Whole Country

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Climate Change, Codes and Regulations, Energy, Solar Panel
There is no factual dispute that Maryland consumes about 40% more electricity than it generates. That shortfall is not shrinking; it is growing, and the cost of that power keeps rising. We have previously written that Maryland Needs to Produce More Electricity. That imperative is even more urgent as demand spikes from artificial intelligence, electric … Continue Reading

EPA Proposes Suspension of Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Federal, GHG, greenhouse gas
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued a proposal to eliminate much of the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program and suspend the remainder until 2034, describing the program’s high compliance costs of up to $2.4 billion annually for businesses with limited resultant regulatory value. Today, the GHGRP requires more than 8000 facilities across 47 industrial categories … Continue Reading

When Less Regulation Means Better Outcomes: EPA’s Poultry Effluent Rule Withdrawal Explained

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Codes and Regulations, Federal
As environmental attorneys, we are often asked to assist clients in the balance between environmental protection, regulatory authority, and the broader socio economic impacts of government decisions. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s September 3, 2025 withdrawal of its proposed rule revising “effluent limitations guidelines” for the Meat and Poultry Products point source category, in support … Continue Reading

EPA Seeks Public Comment on Genetically Engineered Mosquito Risk

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Codes and Regulations, Environmental, Federal
As an environmental attorney, I am often asked to evaluate the legal processes surrounding emerging technologies that intersect with protecting human health and the environment. Few issues illustrate this intersection more vividly than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s latest announcement concerning genetically engineered mosquitoes for mosquito control. This is a significant environmental matter. For those … Continue Reading
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