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89 FR 18669

United States v. Crowley Marine Services, Inc., No. 2:24-cv-00307 (W.D. Wash. Mar. 7, 2024). Under a proposed consent decree, settling CERCLA, CWA, and OPA defendants must purchase credits in a habitat restoration project constructed along the Lower Duwamish River, pay a total of $210,000 for natural resource damages, and pay $64,325.63 to reimburse assessment costs in connection with natural resource damages caused by releases of hazardous substances and discharges of oil from facilities located along and near the river.

89 FR 18626

DOE notified interested parties of its intent to launch a Voluntary Carbon Dioxide Removal Purchasing Challenge.

89 FR 17902

FWS designated critical habitat for 12 endangered species on the island of Hawai‘i under the ESA.

89 FR 16624

FWS designated approximately 1,160,625 acres in 13 Florida counties as critical habitat for the Florida bonneted bat under the ESA.

89 FR 15868

EPA announced the availability of and seeks comment on a draft document titled “EPA Criteria for Product Category Rules to Support the Label Program for Low Embodied Carbon Construction Materials.”

89 FR 15763

FWS removed the Florida golden aster from the Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Plants due to recovery.

89 FR 15168

NMFS gave notice that all Middle Columbia River steelhead occurring in all accessible reaches upstream of Round Butte Dam on the Deschutes River in Oregon will be designated as threatened under the ESA when the nonessential experimental population designation and accompanying protective measures expire on January 15, 2025.

Avoiding Performative Climate Justice

Today's climate impacts and those on the horizon increasingly infuse mitigation and adaptation efforts with urgency, causing policymakers to contemplate or issue formal declarations of a climate emergency and to streamline review processes to aid rapid development of mitigation and adaptation infrastructure and technology. Yet, this urgency and need have the potential to create injustice and sideline or overwhelm efforts to reduce existing injustice.

The Tyranny of Baselines

Many environmental law paradigms focus on fixed points. Sometimes, the fixed points are in the past, and environmental laws call upon us to look at a baseline or previous state of nature and compare our actions against it. Other approaches call for us to consider an ideal state and develop strategies regarding how to reach it. In a 4° Celsius world, both strategies fail. Adhering to baselines is meaningless and striving for goals that are unachievable may lead to paralysis.

“Experimental Populations” Final Rule: FWS’ Response to Climate Change Threats

Climate change and invasive species are jeopardizing already endangered and threatened species, prompting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to finalize its 2023 rule allowing experimental populations to be introduced into habitat outside their historical range, as long as the areas are capable of supporting the experimental population.