Dear Section Members, I hope your year is going well. Here is the regular news roundup. On BBKlaw<https://www.bbklaw.com/news-events/insights?p=0&c=f27c8ea4-b509-44ad-8922-2a28e7115aef>: Court Rules Controversial Minimum Ratio Groundwater Pumping Rate Mandate Violates Proposition 26<https://www.bbklaw.com/news-events/insights/2022/legal-alerts/06/court-rules-controversial-minimum-ratio>, June 8, 2022, The California Court of Appeal has ruled that a statute requiring local agencies to charge non-agricultural users three to five times more than agricultural users for groundwater pumping violates Proposition 26. Among other significant implications, this decision should serve to remind local agencies that they bear the burden of proof to demonstrate that a fee is exempt from the definition of a "tax." On Law 360<https://www.law360.com/environmental/news?page=1>: Activists Sue EPA To Ensure Clean Air Act Compliance<https://www.law360.com/environmental/articles/1500560/activists-sue-epa-to-ensure-clean-air-act-compliance>, June 8, 2022, A group of environmental and health care activists sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday in the District of Columbia, alleging that the agency violated the Clean Air Act by failing to identify whether 30 metropolitan cities across the nation with dangerous levels of smog were in compliance with the law. In a 15-page complaint, Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, Downwinders at Risk, Heal Utah and Sierra Club filed a Clean Air Act complaint against the EPA and its administrator Michael S. Regan, alleging that the agency failed to carry out its legal duties to determine whether problem areas across the country met the 2015 National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone by the statutory deadline. On The National Law Review<http://www.natlawreview.com/practice-groups/Environment-Energy-EPA>: Biden Administration Announces 24-Month Tariff Moratorium on Solar Panel Imports and Plans to Encourage Domestic Panel Manufacturing<https://www.natlawreview.com/article/biden-administration-announces-24-month-tariff-moratorium-solar-panel-imports-and>, June 8, 2022, The Biden Administration has announced plans to ease restrictions on solar panel imports from Southeast Asia, a move prompted by U.S. solar industry concerns. On June 6, the Administration declared a 24-month tariff moratorium on solar panels manufactured in Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, by way of executive action. The moratorium comes in response to serious concerns from the U.S. solar industry about the effects of an ongoing Department of Commerce (DOC) investigation into whether solar panels imported from these nations actually originated in China, and, thus, would be subject to retroactive tariffs of up to 250 percent. While companies may be subject to tariffs after the 24-month period ends, the moratorium reportedly will exempt U.S. companies from any retroactive tariffs. California PFAS Laws Take Aim At Consumer Goods<https://www.natlawreview.com/article/california-pfas-laws-take-aim-consumer-goods>, June 7, 2022, The end of May 2022 saw two new significant California PFAS laws make their way through the legislature, taking significant steps forward to becoming laws that are presented to the Governor for signature. Both bills to some degree focus directly on consumer goods. With increasing attention being given to PFAS in consumer goods in the media, scientific community, and in state legislatures, the California PFAS laws underscore the importance of companies anywhere in the manufacturing or supply chain for consumer goods to immediately assess the impact of the proposed PFAS legislation on corporate practices, and make decisions regarding continued use of PFAS in products, as opposed to substituting for other substances. At the same time, companies impacted by the PFAS legislation must be aware that the new laws pose risks to the companies involvement in PFAS litigation in both the short and long term. Environmental Justice Enforcement Actions To Increase By EPA<https://www.natlawreview.com/article/environmental-justice-enforcement-actions-to-increase-epa>, June 7, 2022, The EPA recently indicated that it will ramp up its activity with respect to environmental justice enforcement initiatives using pre-pandemic tools such as on-site facility inspections. The EPA's focus on environmental justice reverse some Trump-era policies that limited the focus of EPA action on environmental justice, and further support President Biden's pledge to increasingly focus on environmental justice initiatives. The EPA's environmental justice enforcement policies will impact environmental justice issues nationwide and companies must understand the significance of the EPA's announcement on the overall administrations efforts to give agencies power to pursue its environmental justice goals. How Bumble Bees Became "Fish": a California Appellate Decision Illustrates Canons of Statutory Construction<https://www.natlawreview.com/article/how-bumble-bees-became-fish-california-appellate-decision-illustrates-canons>, June 2, 2022, A California appellate court recently concluded that the bumble bee is a "fish," at least for the purposes of certain provisions in the California Endangered Species Act (Cal. ESA). Because bumble bees are "fish," they can be subject to the Cal. ESA. While this conclusion would be disputed by primary school age children everywhere, this decision - in Almond Alliance of California v. California Fish and Game Commission - illustrates how courts can sometimes reach supportable, but wholly counterintuitive, results. On JD Supra Business Advisor Environmental Updates<http://www.jdsupra.com/law-news/environmental-law/>: PFAS Update: EPA Expands Screening Levels for PFAS<https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/pfas-update-epa-expands-screening-6066761/>, June 13, 2022, The United States Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") recently added the following five PFAS substances to the list of risk-based Regional Screening Levels ("RSL") for Chemical Contaminants at Superfund Sites: Hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid (HFPO-DA; also referred to as GenX chemicals); Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS); Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA); Perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), and Perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHxS). EPA previously added Perfluorobutanesulfonic acid (PFBS) to the RSL list in 2014 and updated the value in 2021. As described in more detail in the Press Release, RSLs are used to identify contaminated media at a site that may need further investigation and "are used to support EPA's decisions to undertake a removal action under CERCLA." Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Invalidates Fracking Offshore California<https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/ninth-circuit-court-of-appeals-5208013/>, June 8, 2022, In Environmental Defense Center et al. v. BOEM et al (No. 19-55526), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on June 3, 2022, invalidated the U.S. Department of Interior's issuance of dozens of permits for well stimulation - or "fracking" - operations in the waters offshore California after concluding that Interior's environmental review of the operations was inadequate under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). New York's Proposed Sustainable Packaging Requirements: Is it Enough?<https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/new-york-s-proposed-sustainable-4668550/>, June 8, 2022, With the New York Cannabis Control Board's (CCB) recent release of draft regulations to address packaging, advertising, and testing labs, the CCB also included progressive requirements around the mandatory use of sustainable packaging. As part of the application process, license applicants will be required to submit an environmental sustainability program for cannabis product packaging. US EPA Releases Guidance on Legal Tools to Advance Environmental Justice<https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/us-epa-releases-guidance-on-legal-tools-5642059/>, June 7, 2022, On May 26, 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of the General Counsel released EPA Legal Tools to Advance Environmental Justice ("EJ Legal Tools"). The document builds on and updates EPA's 2011 Plan EJ 2014: Legal Tools. Nearly double in length and featuring a new chapter on civil rights laws, the May 2022 EJ Legal Tools provides EPA and its tribal, state, and local partners a compilation of legal authorities for advancing environmental justice. EJ Legal Tools addresses virtually every environmental statutory and regulatory regime, as well as civil rights statutes. Although EPA characterizes the document as "one tool, albeit an important one, in EPA's toolkit for promoting environmental justice and equity," when coupled with recently issued enforcement guidance by EPA and the Department of Justice prioritizing enforcement actions in the environmental justice arena, EJ Legal Tools evinces an intention to significantly ramp up environmental justice activities in all aspects of environmental law. EPA's Clean Water Act Certification Proposal to Significantly Impact Hydropower Licensing<https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/epa-s-clean-water-act-certification-9761835/>, June 7, 2022, On June 1, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a pre-publication version of its proposal to re-write the Clean Water Act Section 401 rule (Certification Proposal), which, if finalized, is expected to have far-reaching impacts on hydroelectric licensing and relicensing. The Certification Proposal is intended by EPA to replace the version of the rule finalized under the Trump administration in 2020 (2020 Rule). While the Certification Proposal maintains some aspects of the 2020 Rule, it differs in some significant areas and in many ways reverts back to the 1971 regulations. Please tell us if you have questions or comments. 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