In June of 2015, the Obama administration introduced new Clean Water Standards impacting many states, including the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, through Executive Order No. 13778. These new regulations have been the subject of litigation and scrutiny from both environmental groups and industry organizations for the past several years. Additionally, as […]
Legal Voice Blog
Circuit Split Could Lead to SCOTUS Review of Surface Mining
The Fourth Circuit’s jurisdiction comprises coal rich regions of West Virginia and Virginia. This court has a reputation of being the most conservative in the country, and its stance on the permitting required for mountaintop removal (surface mining) has fallen in line with this ideology. In two landmark citizen suits, Kentuckians […]
Monarch Butterflies: The Next Listed Species?
The broad purpose of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), 16 USC § 1531 et seq., includes providing a means to conserve the ecosystems upon which endangered species and threatened species rely and providing a program for the conservation of endangered and threatened species. The ESA defines a threatened species as […]
Pennsylvania Agritourism and the Law
Speak with someone who has lived in a city for his or her entire life and you will likely be talking to someone who has never set foot on a farm. We all rely on farms for the fresh meat, dairy, and produce that we enjoy on a daily basis, […]
Scott Pruitt and the EPA: When Business Supersedes Duty
The Environmental Protection Agency [hereinafter EPA] was established on December 2, 1970, under the Nixon administration. Creating the EPA allowed for several environmentally focused groups to be consolidated into one large group, which made it easier for environmentally focused objectives to be met. The Clean Air Act of 1970, Clean […]
Pennsylvania Superior Court Recognizes That Hydraulic Fracturing Could Constitute an Actionable Trespass
On April 2, 2018, the Pennsylvania Superior Court found that the rule of capture did not preclude liability for a mineral lessee’s trespass on neighbors’ land because the lessee’s hydraulic fracturing could constitute an actionable trespass if the operations resulted in the extraction of natural gas from underneath a neighbor’s […]
Constitutional Spending of Outdoor Recreation Revenues
One of the biggest environmental disasters in Pennsylvania, and indeed the nation as a whole, has been the mismanagement of wildlife in the united states. At the turn of the century, there were few deer, turkey, and bear left in Pennsylvania. Species like the eastern mountain lion, the eastern elk, […]
Flint Water Crisis
In 2011, a mismanaged state government effectively took the reins from elected municipal officials and maligned the largely lower income and racially diverse population of Flint. The result was a cacophony of events that ushered in an unprecedented period of fear and confusion for the citizens of this southeastern Michigan […]
Cases to Watch: EQT v. DEP Will Likely Have a Resounding Effect on DEP’s Authority.
Two months ago, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania heard arguments in what may prove to be one of the state’s most consequential environmental law cases in recent years. The case involves a leak from a frack water impoundment pit located in Tioga County. The impoundment was located near a natural […]
Environmental Rights Amendment in Pennsylvania
In the early 20th century, Pennsylvania suffered from extreme environmental pollution. Suffering from orange streams, black snow, and other problems, Pennsylvania realized that it needed to take steps to combat pollution. In the 1970s, the federal government began taking steps to deal with the problem by passing the National Environmental […]