Max Bridges is a Registered Patent Attorney and member of the Firm’s Intellectual Property Protection & Litigation Service Team. According to clients in Chambers USA, “He brings great attention to detail and is quickly ...
By Max Bridges, with significant contributions from Conrad Herman, a 2020 Summer Associate
In April, the Supreme Court issued a landmark Clean Water Act decision by creating a new “functional equivalent” test to determine when a person who discharges pollutants to groundwater is required to obtain a National Pollutant Discharge ...
Last week, the United States Supreme Court agreed to decide whether the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals is the proper venue for challenges to the “Clean Water Rule.” As previously detailed on this blog, the Clean Water Rule was promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers to clarify and ...
Max Bridges, Associate in the Firm's Natural Resources & Environmental Service Team, wrote an article that was published in the fall edition of the Kentucky Rural Water Association's Waterproof Magazine. The article, "EPA's Muddy 'Waters of the U.S.' Rule," describes the history of the Clean Water Act with regard to the "waters of the United ...
Max Bridges and George Seay, members of Wyatt's Natural Resources & Environmental Service Team, will be presenting at the 29th Annual Kentucky Professional Engineers in Mining Seminar. They will be speaking on the topic "Environmental Update Including the Stream Protection Rule, and what Constitutes Criminal Behavior Following the Don ...
On Monday, the United States Supreme Court rejected an appeal from 20 states seeking to block the MATS rule from taking effect while the EPA undertakes a second determination whether regulating power plant mercury emissions is appropriate and necessary. As previously discussed on this blog, the MATS rule was promulgated pursuant ...
On May 12, the EPA finalized a set of regulations that will reduce methane, volatile organic compounds, and toxic air emissions in the oil and gas industry. The final rule will target emissions from new or modified oil and gas wells. According to the Agency, the rule will prevent 11 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent ...
On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit concluded that it has jurisdiction to review challenges to the “Clean Water Rule.” As previously detailed on this blog, the Clean Water Rule was promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps of Engineers to clarify and expand the reach of ...
Yesterday, by a 5-4 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay of the Obama Administration’s “Clean Power Plan,” regulations promulgated to limit CO2 emissions from the electric power sector. A coalition of 27 states is challenging the regulations in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia; this is the first ...
On December 11, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari to determine if a party can appeal a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ jurisdictional determination that a water feature is regulated under the Clean Water Act. United States Army Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes Co., Inc. et al., Docket No. 15-290. The Petition was filed by the ...
Max Bridges, a member of Wyatt's Natural Resources & Environmental Service Team, will be presenting at the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce's 14th Annual Environmental Conference on February 9-10 in Lexington. Mr. Bridges will be speaking on the topic "Real Estate and Environmental Issues Selected Statutes and Predevelopment Planning." The ...
In November, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the Clean Air Act (CAA) does not preempt state common law tort claims. It reached this conclusion in an action by property owners who allege that ethanol emissions from Diageo Americas Supply whiskey aging warehouses harm their property. Merrick v. Diageo Americas Supply ...
On October 1, the EPA lowered the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ground-level ozone to 70 parts per billion (ppb), from the current level of 75 ppb set under President Bush in 2008. Ground-level ozone is a main component of smog and can produce a number of harmful effects on the respiratory system, including ...
Late Thursday, a federal judge in North Dakota blocked the EPA’s Clean Water Rule, set to go into effect today, that would expand federal jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act. U.S. District Judge Ralph Erikson of North Dakota issued a preliminary injunction finding that the 13 states suing to block the rule are likely to ...
On Monday, President Obama and the EPA unveiled the final version of the Clean Power Plan, a rule that will reduce carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants. Assuming the Clean Power Plan survives an expected avalanche of legal challenges, the rule will reduce CO2 emissions from power plants by 32 percent ...
On May 27, the EPA finalized the “Clean Water Rule” which defines the scope of waters protected by the Clean Water Act. The rule is intended to clarify and implement Supreme Court decisions interpreting the reach of Clean Water Act provisions controlled by the phrase “waters of the United States.”
Those decisions have ...
On April 17, 2015, the EPA published a final rule in the Federal Register regulating the disposal of coal combustion residuals (CCRs) as solid waste under subtitle D of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). The EPA established national minimum criteria for existing and new CCR landfills, existing and new CCR ...
On June 29, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), an Obama administration effort to limit toxic emissions of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) from Electric Generating Units (EGUs). In a 5-4 decision under the name Michigan v. EPA, the Court held the EPA ...