In an Article published in the October issue of the Environmental Law Reporter, Elisabeth Holmes and Charles Tebbutt argued that H.R. 872, a bill that would amend FIFRA and the CWA as they pertain to aquatic pesticide applications, should not be enacted. To the contrary, H.R. 872 is a commonsense approach to harmonizing regulatory obligations under FIFRA and the CWA, and it should be enacted promptly. NPDES permits for aquatic pesticide applications are not needed to protect human health and

Healthy ecosystems provide many services to society, including water filtration, biodiversity habitat protection, and carbon sequestration. A number of incentive programs and markets have arisen to pay landowners for these services, raising questions about how landowners can receive multiple payments for the ecosystem services they provide from the same parcel, a practice known as stacking. Stacking can provide multiple revenue streams for landowners and encourage them to manage their lands for multiple ecosystem services.

On May 2, 2011, EPA andthe Corps issued draft joint guidance for the interpretation of the phrase “waters of the United States” under the CWA. Determinations of CWA jurisdiction are critical for the agencies in issuing permits to fill wetlands under §404 of the CWA and in CWA enforcement actions. The proposed guidance purports to “clarify” how the agencies will “understand” existing requirements of the CWA and identify waters protected by the CWA “in light of” the holdings in Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cooke County v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Rapanos v.

The difficulty of coming to agreement on comprehensive energy and climate change legislation highlights the need for a more targeted and incremental approach. One promising intermediate step would be a technology-neutral national clean energy standard for the power sector. The proposed standard would lower carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 60% relative to 2005 levels over 20 years, streamline the fragmented regulatory system, generate fiscal benefits, and finance energy innovation.