Public companies in the U.S. find themselves at a dynamic time of emergent environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) disclosures. New appointees in the Biden Administration, from the SEC and the Labor Department to the top White House economic advisor, all signal mandatory ESG disclosures. The idea of ESG began in 2004 with a United Nations … Continue Reading
Michigan prosecutors last Thursday announced that 9 individuals have been indicted on a total of 42 counts related to a series of alleged actions and inactions that created the Flint water crisis. Interestingly, the Chief Judge of the Seventh Circuit in Genesee County appointed Judge David Newblatt to act as a one-man grand jury to … Continue Reading
The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, H.R. 133, signed into law by President Trump on December 27th, extended the 45L energy efficient home $2,000 tax credit, which had been scheduled to expire last year, to cover qualified new energy efficient homes sold or leased through 2021. And yes, regular readers of this blog will notice that … Continue Reading
On page 4,872 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, H.R. 133, which passed both houses of Congress on December 21st and was signed into law by President Trump on December 27th, the 179D energy efficient commercial buildings federal tax deduction, which had been scheduled to expire at year end, was instead made permanent. At a … Continue Reading
As we look back at my most read blog posts in 2020, at a time when most of us have accepted that we will never go back to exactly the way things were, we are no doubt collectively ready for a new year, and I am incredibly excited about the prospects for environmental law. I … Continue Reading
Last month GRESB announced that its management had purchased the business from its parent GBCI. GRESB was established in 2009 as the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark by three pension funds who wanted to assess and benchmark the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) and other related performance of real assets, providing standardized data to capital … Continue Reading
Three weeks ago the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed a regulation to finally resolve and codify the legal principal that an incidental bird take resulting from an otherwise lawful activity, for example a sparrows flies into a solar panel, is not prohibited under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The Fish and Wildlife Service is … Continue Reading
The City of Portland is proposing a carbon tax that would be the first of its kind anywhere in the country. Given the increased emphasis on climate change by the incoming Biden Administration the proposed ordinance should be on your required reading list. Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions are changing the climate. Energy … Continue Reading
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released a draft National Recycling Strategy and is seeking public comment through December 4, 2020, with the goal of finalizing it in early 2021. Maybe not since Plato wrote about the value of reusing waste in the fourth century BC has recycling faced the challenges that we are seeing right now. … Continue Reading
With Covid-19 spreading across the U.S. and some places reclosing in reaction to the new surge, considered against a backdrop of more than 2,000 new statutes, regulations and executive orders addressing the pandemic that have been enacted in a matter of months, many commercial real estate owners are questioning if they can be liable for … Continue Reading
This post is about what we know today about how to occupy commercial and public buildings, from offices to schools, in order to prevent the spread of the SARS-Cov-2 (the now designation for what had been the novel coronavirus 2019). If in 1992, “it’s the economy, stupid” was the phrase coined as the message of … Continue Reading
Last Friday the U.S. Department of Energy issued a final rule effective November 30, 2020, that will once again permit American households to purchase dishwashers that actually clean dishes, as they had done for most of the machine’s 130 year history. The October 30 final rule does not force anyone to change their currently installed … Continue Reading
Among the most misunderstood term in a Phase I environmental site assessment is the Historical Recognized Environmental Condition. The environmental professionals who perform these assessments by and large do not take heed of Eduardo Galeano’s quote, “History never really says goodbye. History says, ‘see you later.’” By way of background, a Phase I environmental site … Continue Reading
Last Monday evening an ordinance was introduced in the Baltimore City Council to adopt the 2018 International Green Construction Code. In the realm of green building this is a big deal. In the more than 4,400 code adopting jurisdictions across the country only the town of Gaithersburg, Maryland has adopted the 2018 IgCC. It is … Continue Reading
While this week the confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett begins in earnest before the Senate Judiciary Committee, last week the U.S. Supreme Court granted BP’s petition for a writ of certiorari in BP P.L.C. v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, a much watched climate change case. In 2017, a number of state and … Continue Reading
At a time when the building industry is principally concerned with the impact of COVID-19 and the luster is off green building, the Montgomery County Council last Tuesday unanimously approved legislation “to accelerate the construction of highly energy efficient buildings and green retrofitting of existing buildings.” Bill 10-20 dramatically upgrades the Maryland county’s existing green … Continue Reading
During the 2019 legislative session, the Maryland General Assembly enacted what will be the first statewide ban of expanded polystyrene foam. In the Spring of 2019 law makers did not foresee a pandemic that would shift restaurant dining (not to mention school meals and much more) to carry out in transportable food containers, but today … Continue Reading
A final rule the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission adopted on August 26, 2020 and effective 30 days after publication in the Federal Register may be more significant for what is not in the rule. The rule is silent on ESG disclosures, including nary a mention of climate risk, but as described below the results … Continue Reading
In 2020 when science and politics appear to have collided in a car wreck, confidence of the public in scientists is at an all time low. That observed, the public does not often think about the role courts have in accepting scientific theories. Last week Maryland’s highest court drew attention to this vital unsettled matter … Continue Reading
For those concerned about the state of the environmental industrial complex during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, I can report that last Friday I reviewed my 1,000th Phase I Environmental Site Assessment this year. In context, last year I did not hit that 1,000 mark until late September, and while it is an unscientific indicator, … Continue Reading
Earlier this month the U.S. Department of Labor put another nail in the coffin of environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) disclosures. Media sources have reported that the Employee Benefits Security Administration in the Department of Labor sent letters to a group of Registered Investment Advisors requesting detailed information within 2 weeks about their use of … Continue Reading
There are nearly 2 Million houses in the U.S. with solar panels installed on the roof and that number was reached just 3 years after the 1 millionth installation. It can be perilous to fail to properly address rooftop solar panels at the time of sale of a house. With home sales reaching lofty heights … Continue Reading
Montgomery County, Maryland is on the cusp of being the first to adopt the 2018 International Green Construction Code. The proposed Executive Regulation 12-20 appeared in the Montgomery County Register on August 1. A public hearing will be held on proposed regulation on September 3. And written comments may be submitted until October 5. Montgomery … Continue Reading
If green building is going to repair the planet it will have to include green roads. Over 65% of the impervious surfaces in the U.S. are related to transportation (e.g., roads, parking lots, sidewalks, and driveways), with the vast majority being roads. There are 4,180,817 miles of roads in the U.S. Roads are the largest … Continue Reading