THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

The collective wit and wisdom from three decades of practicing environmental law (in no order of importance). 1.Thou shall not call the environmental lawyer the day before the closing 2. Thou shall not accept without further inquiry a Phase 1 reports that says there are no RECs 3. Thou shall be concerned when the Phase […]

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Pre-Publication Notice Identifying 30 Environmental Rules Subject to Regulatory Freeze

In a prior post, we discussed the regulatory freeze that had been implemented by the Trump Administration on its first day in office. The moratorium applied to proposed rules issued by the Obama Administration since election day that had not yet gone into effect. We provided a list of environmental and energy rules that were

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What Obama-Era Environmental Regulations May Be Revoked Under the Congressional Review Act

In our prior Post, we discussed the regulations proposed by the Obama Administration since election day that would be subject to the moratorium issued by the Trump Administration. In this post, we cover the Obama-era regulations that have already gone into effect that my be vulnerable to recession under the Congressional Review Act (CRA).  The

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What Obama “Midnight Rules” Are Subject to the Trump Regulatory Freeze?

Since the Carter Administration, it has become customary for outgoing presidential administrations to issue a plethora of new regulations between election day and the inauguration. These rules are often called “midnight rules”. In response, the incoming administrations have issued executive orders or memorandum to temporarily delay or “freeze” these midnight regulations” so the new administration

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Court Dismisses Action Against DEC For Breach of VCA

A 20-year old voluntary cleanup agreement (VCA) was the subject of the dispute before the New York Court of Claims in Alaskan Oil, Inc., v. State of New York, Claim No. 116072 Motion No. CM-81863 (Ct. Claims 7/25/16). In this case, claimant Alaskan Oil Inc. acquired approximately 40 properties owned by Parrish Energy Fuels, Inc.,

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Appellate Court Restricts NYSDEC Ability to Spend Superfund Money

A legal maxim is that  bad facts often make bad law. It appears that complex facts may have confused an Appellate Division court in In the Matter of FMC Corporation vs New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, 2016 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 6785 (App. Div.-Third Dept. 10/20/16) where the three judge-panel appeared to rule

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NYSDEC Adopts Final Definition of “Underutilized” for NYC Brownfield Sites

Over a year after the 2015 amendments to the state Brownfield Cleanup Program (BCP) went into effect and eight months after the legislative deadline, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) announced it was adopting amendments to its Part 375 regulations defining what constitutes  “underutilized” and “affordable housing”.  The definitions are important because

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NYSDEC Proposes Revised Brownfield “Underutilized” Definition

The NYSDEC’s much awaited revised definition of underutilized that was required as part of the 2015 Brownfield Cleanup Program (BCP) reforms will be published in the March 9, 2016 New York State Register (NYR). The proposed definition is currently available on the NYSDEC website As previously  discussed, the 2015 BCP amendments replaced the ‘as of

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Searchable BCP Tax Credit Database Show Who Has Received Tax Credits and How Much

Because of the changes and controversy surrounding the  NYSDEC Brownfield Cleanup Program (BCP), there has been some skepticism in the real estate community about the amount of  tax credits that the Department of Taxation and Finance actually approves and if those amounts are near what is supposed to be available under the BCP. The following

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