The Office of Science and Technology Policy seeks input to help inform the framing, development, and eventual use of the first national nature assessment, conducted under the authority of the Global Change Research Act of 1990 and Exec. Order No. 14072 on strengthening the nation’s forests, communities, and local economies.

EPA entered into a proposed consent decree under the CAA in Our Children’s Earth Foundation v. U.S. EPA, No. 22-cv-276-CKK (D.D.C.), that would establish deadlines for the Agency to take final actions on twelve SIP submissions from New Jersey.

United States v. Flexsteel Industries, Inc., No. 3:22-cv-00893 (N.D. Ind. Oct. 24, 2022). A settling CERCLA defendant must pay $9.8 million in connection with the Lane Street Ground Water Contamination Superfund site in Elkhart, Indiana.

A proposed settlement agreement under CERCLA, RCRA, and the CWA requires settling defendants to pay the United States for costs incurred responding to environmental contamination at the West Nome Tank Farm site in Nome, Alaska.

EPA designated one new equivalent method for measuring concentrations of particulate matter in the 2.5-micron range in ambient air.

United States v. Petroff Trucking Co., Inc., No. 20-cv-930-DWD (S.D. Ill. Oct. 24, 2022). A settling CWA defendant that discharged pollutants from point sources into waters of the United States without a permit must perform compensatory mitigation.

EPA Region 1 announced the availability of the draft NPDES small wastewater treatment facility general permit modification for discharges to certain waters of Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

FWS determined threatened species status for the emperor penguin under the ESA, and finalized a rule under §4(d) of the Act that provides measures that are necessary and advisable to provide for the conservation of the species.

DOE amended its regulations on the procedures for the acquisition of petroleum products for the strategic petroleum reserve to more closely align the regulatory language with the applicable statutory language, remove outdated procedures for acquisition under the royalty-in-kind program, add procedures for acquisition by exchange to better reflect petroleum product acquisition operations as conducted by the Office of Petroleum Reserves, and increase the Department’s flexibility in structuring acquisitions.

DOE seeks comment on its Microgrid Program Strategy, which focuses on impactful results in key metrics, such as reliability, resilience, decarbonization, and affordability, in the next five to 10 years.