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The Department of Justice (“DOJ”) issued a Comprehensive Environmental Justice Enforcement Strategy (“the Strategy”) on May 5, 2022, pursuant to President Biden’s January 2021 Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad.

On March 28, 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) published its Final Strategic Plan (“Strategic Plan”) setting forth the agency’s priorities over the next four years based on seven strategic goals focused on the protection of the environment and human health.

EPA has just released a proposed rule that would require facilities near “navigable water” that store listed hazardous substances above a threshold amount to prepare facility response plans for spills.

In the latest development surrounding PFAS, EPA has published a direct final rule endorsing use of the newly updated ASTM E1527-21 standard for Phase I Environmental Site Assessments (“Phase Is”).

On February 15, 2022, the Biden administration announced a slew of low carbon emissions initiatives for the industrial sector in support of the administration’s goal to achieve a net-zero economy.

Several environmental groups recently filed a suit (the “Complaint”) challenging two EPA rules (the “PFAS rules”) that added a total of 175 PFAS chemicals to the list of toxic chemicals subject to reporting under what is commonly known as the Toxics Release Inventory (“TRI”).

EPA has received more than 300,000 comments on its November 2021 proposal to regulate methane from new and existing sources in the oil and gas production sector.

On October 25, 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) released a final human health toxicity assessment for two PFAS substances — hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid and its ammonium salt — also known as “GenX chemicals.”

In 2021, there was sustained and fast-paced executive action from the Biden administration focused on emphasizing and addressing the environmental and human health effects of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, more commonly known as “PFAS.”

The Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) launched its PFAS Strategic Roadmap: EPA’s Commitments to Action 2021-2024 (the “Roadmap”) on October 18, 2021.

The concept of “environmental justice” (“EJ”) is not new—the federal government has been working to define and address environmental justice and related human health and environmental effects since the Clinton administration. The reality that communities consisting of minority, low-income, and vulnerable populations have been disproportionately impacted by adverse human health or environmental effects, sometimes for decades, is also generally accepted.

EPA announced plans for two separate rulemaking processes that would expand liabilities for PFAS wastes.