If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the whiplash of today’s political landscape (and how it affects the future of environmental regulations), you aren’t alone. This week we sat down to talk to two of the industry’s top environmental lawyers to set the record straight for EHS leaders who need to know where environmental regulations stand and what trends could impact them.
Overall, the main takeaways from our discussion included:
Read more below or watch the full webinar here.
Although the Trump administration brought a lot of talk about regulatory changes and attempts to shift enforcement policy, the previous environmental framework held firm. We’ve seen a continued increase in violations with penalties that started at the end of the Obama administration.
”What went largely unnoticed at the end of the Obama administration was the dramatic increase in the potential penalties that could flow from violations of the major environmental statutes. The cost of living adjustment was established so that the penalties increased either 2x or threefold.” - Gary Lucks, Partner at Bay Area Law Group
The EPA and DOJ also reestablished an agreement that requires that companies under investigation who wish to receive cooperation credit in investigations of misconduct must report all individuals involved in the alleged misconduct. “The DOJ and the EPA have started incentivizing the defendants to identify the individual(s) before they can settle,” Lucks noted, citing the Yates Memorandum. As a result, specific officials within a company will not be shielded from prosecutors if they are involved either through willful misconduct or simply negligence.
In a frenzy of recent news regarding federal regulatory enforcement, here is a brief summary that environmental leaders might find impactful in the near future (if not right now).