Blogs | Environmental and Energy Law Solutions

On January 21, 2021, President Biden issued the “Executive Order on Protecting Worker Health and Safety,” available here, along with numerous other executive orders addressing COVID-19.  The order directs the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to:

• Issue revised guidance to employers on workplace safety during the COVID-19 pandemic, by February 4, 2021;
• Consider whether any emergency temporary standards on COVID-19, including regarding masks in the workplace, are necessary, and if necessary, issue them by March 15, 2021 (expedited approval measures apply to such emergency standards);
• Review OSHA’s enforcement efforts related to COVID-19 and identify changes that could better protect workers and ensure equity in enforcement;
• Launch a national program to focus OSHA enforcement efforts related to COVID-19 on violations that put the largest number of workers at serious risk or are contrary to anti-retaliation principles; and
• Conduct a multilingual outreach campaign to inform workers and their representatives of their rights under applicable law, placing a special emphasis on communities hit hardest by the pandemic.

Fines and penalties issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) are set to increase in 2021 as a result of annual inflationary adjustments.

How is Colorado Dealing with “Gap” Waters?

The scope of federal jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act remains perplexing, particularly now that Colorado is the only state in the nation where the Navigable Water Protection Rule did not take effect June 22, 2020.  In the context of a lengthy “stakeholder” process, on November 20, 2020, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) issued a White Paper addressing its regulatory options in light of the new federal WOTUS rule.  Construction companies, developers, and other businesses seeking to permit activities around wetlands, ephemeral waters, and intermittent streams in Colorado would benefit from reviewing this comprehensive discussion of the multitude of dilemmas Colorado and others states face in light of the new rule.

Judge Contreras’s Second Opinion Blasts the Bureau of Land Management for Sloppy Environmental Analysis

Last year, in a 60-page opinion issued in March 2019, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras stopped the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from leasing oil and gas on over 500 square miles of federal lands in Wyoming.  He began his opinion by stating:  “Climate change, and humanity’s ability to combat it, are increasingly prominent topics of public discourse. This case concerns the attention the government must give climate change when taking action that may increase its effects.”