FWS determined endangered species status under the ESA for the Guadalupe fatmucket, Texas fatmucket, Guadalupe orb, Texas pimpleback, Balcones spike, and false spike, determined threatened species status for the Texas fawnsfoot, and designated approximately 1,577.5 river miles in total as critical habitat for the seven species of freshwater mussels in central Texas.
Development impacts many aspects of the food system, including where food is grown, how far food must travel, where distributors and retailers are placed, and who has access to fresh and nutritious food. By viewing development and its associated impacts through a sustainability and life-cycle lens, we can rethink the role of development and how communities can grow while fostering a strong, inclusive, affordable, accessible, and healthy food system. This Article focuses on the way local governments regulate development and how that impacts the food system.
For more than half a century, the Chesapeake Bay and many of its tributaries have suffered from poor water quality. Compelled by an executive order and litigation, in 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued the Chesapeake Bay total maximum daily load (Bay TMDL) to reduce pollution discharges and thereby restore Bay water quality; unfortunately, the Bay TMDL will fail to meet its 2025 objective.
In China, the year 2023 witnessed the further evolution of environmental protection and development of legislation and rulemaking. This mainly included adoption of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Ecological Protection Law, revision of the Marine Environmental Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China, and adoption of a series of judicial interpretations. This Comment summarizes some of the year’s major developments.
Sustainability promotes decisions that balance social, environmental, and economic values; antitrust seeks to preserve and promote commercial competition.
The Internal Revenue Service proposed regulations relating to the clean electricity production credit and the clean electricity investment credit established by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 to provide rules for determining greenhouse gas emissions rates resulting from the production of electricity; petitioning for provisional emissions rates; and determining eligibility for these credits in various circumstances.
United States v. PSF, Inc., No. 3:24-cv-00112 (D. Alaska May 24, 2024). Under a proposed consent decree, settling CWA defendants that allegedly violated the conditions and limitations of their NPDES permits at their facilities in Valdez and King Cove, Alaska, must perform injunctive relief and pay $750,000 in civil penalties.
NMFS announced its 90-day finding on a petition to list the Delaware River population of Atlantic sturgeon as an endangered distinct population segment (DPS) of Atlantic sturgeon under the ESA and to designate critical habitat for the DPS, finding the petition does not present substantial scientific or commercial information indicating action may be warranted and denying the petition.
FERC amended its regulations governing applications for permits to site electric transmission facilities under the Federal Power Act, as amended by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, and amended its NEPA procedures.
United States v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co., No. 4:23-cv-00517 (N.D. Ohio May 23, 2024). In connection with the February 3, 2023, train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, a proposed consent decree requires a settling CWA and CERCLA defendant to (1) reimburse all response costs incurred by the United States; (2) pay a civil penalty of $15 million; (3) establish a $25 million community health program for qualifying members of the public impacted by the derailment; (4) implement an array of specified rail safety procedures; (5) develop and adopt programs for coordination of rail track restoration and vent and burn procedures; (6) implement a $6 million local waterways remediation plan; (7) pay $175,000 for natural resource damages; and (8) implement compliance and future monitoring requirements.