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SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

In 2015, the United Nations Member States, including the United States, unanimously approved 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030. In a forthcoming book, leading legal scholars examine each of the SDGs and recommend a suite of government, private-sector, and civil society actions to help the United States achieve these goals. This Article is adapted from Chapter 12 of that book, Governing for Sustainability (John C. Dernbach & Scott E. Schang eds., ELI Press, forthcoming 2023).

In the Clamor About Climate Change, Don't Ignore Natural Capital

Climate change has captured the attention of governments, regulators, international bodies, and the private sector. But climate change is arguably a single facet of a larger concern: the “rapid decline” in the integrity of nature. Climate and other natural systems are interconnected, and recent literature has focused increasingly on this “interdependence of climate, ecosystems, and biodiversity,” spurring a wide variety of organizations to reflect on the broader role nature plays in environmental sustainability.

88 FR 6376

DOI reassigned responsibilities for the administration of certain regulations governing renewable energy development and alternate uses of existing facilities on the outer continental shelf, transferring them from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.

88 FR 5374

The Office of Management and Budget, on behalf of the Interagency Policy Working Group on Statistics for Environmental-Economic Decisions, announced the availability of a finalized strategic plan on statistics for environmental-economic decisions.

88 FR 3406

EPA announced the availability of and seeks comment on a draft white paper entitled “Availability of New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) in the Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP),” developed pursuant to the Federal, Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, which requires the Agency to develop a screening program, to determine whether certain substances may have an effect in humans that is similar to an effect produced by a naturally occurring estrogen, or other endocrine effects.

88 FR 3433

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced and seeks comment on its intention to change its bid adequacy procedures, which ensure the United States receives fair market value from outer continental shelf oil and gas lease sales, by discontinuing the use of both tract classification and delayed valuation methodology and using a statistical lower bound confidence interval, at the 90 percent confidence level, as a measure of bid adequacy.

88 FR 2093

EPA seeks comment and recommendations on the National Enforcement and Compliance Initiatives for fiscal years 2024-2027 (formerly called “National Compliance Initiatives”).

88 FR 986

EPA adjusted the level of the maximum (and minimum) statutory civil monetary penalty amounts under the statutes the Agency administers.

88 FR 1114

DOT announced the statutorily-prescribed 2023 adjustment to civil penalty amounts that may be imposed for violations of certain Department regulations.

Does the First Amendment Protect Fossil Fuel Companies’ Public Speech?

Numerous cities, states, and counties have sued fossil fuel companies, with claims based on evidence found in the companies’ own internal documents and statements. These companies have argued their public statements are protected by the First Amendment’s freedom of speech and right to petition clauses. This Article describes the current litigation, discusses the companies’ statements disseminated through various sources, and summarizes U.S. Supreme Court precedent and caselaw on commercial speech.