88 FR 55220
EPA proposed to deny the Alabama Department of Environmental Management’s application for approval of the Alabama coal combustion residuals permit program.
EPA proposed to deny the Alabama Department of Environmental Management’s application for approval of the Alabama coal combustion residuals permit program.
EPA solicited information to assist in the potential development of non-regulatory and regulatory options to ensure the proper management of used industrial containers that held hazardous chemicals or hazardous waste, up to and including the drum reconditioning process.
EPA entered into a proposed cashout settlement agreement under CERCLA concerning the Colorado Smelter Superfund site in Pueblo, Colorado.
EPA announced the availability of and seeks comment on the document entitled “White Paper: Quantitative Human Health Approach to be Applied in the Risk Evaluation for Asbestos Part 2—Supplemental Evaluation including Legacy Uses and Associated Disposals of Asbestos” and related charge questions.
DOD, the General Services Administration, and NASA proposed to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation to restructure and update the regulations to focus on current environmental and sustainability matters and to implement a requirement for agencies to procure sustainable products and services to the maximum extent practicable.
The Office of Management and Budget seeks comment on proposed guidance for assessing changes in environmental and ecosystem services in benefit-cost analysis.
In How Algorithm-Assisted Decisionmaking Is Influencing Environmental Law and Climate Adaptation, Ziaja provides a useful framework to analyze whether an algorithm-assisted decisionmaking (AADM) tool and its design process is procedurally equitable. Ziaja’s framework contains several different questions advocacy groups can use to analyze the AADM tools that are increasingly used for environmental resource governance, such as the INFORM and RESOLVE algorithms discussed in the article, which guide the allocation and distribution of water and energy resources.
Environmental, natural resource, and energy planning will continue to rely on increasingly complex algorithms. Are these processes then also doomed to be inaccessible to key stakeholders? Hopefully not. There are multiple steps to ensuring process and participatory equity. There is ease of access to the process, access to necessary information, and then there is the matter of having the right information to be able to meaningfully impact outcomes of algorithm-assisted decisionmaking processes.
Agencies responsible for water and energy systems increasingly rely on algorithm-assisted decisionmaking to regulate these systems and shepherd them through climate adaptation. Legal scholars, attorneys, and environmental equity advocates should care about this fundamental change in governance for three reasons. First, climate adaptation depends on these tools. Second, algorithmic tools are not policy-neutral; rather they embed value-laden assumptions and biases. And third, the “rules” of this new forum impede equity and democratic participation, without deliberate countermeasures.
EPA Region 8 entered into a proposed administrative settlement agreement concerning the Central City/Clear Creek Superfund site in Clear Creek County, Colorado.