Environmental Justice and Biden Executive Orders: Addressing Climate Change, Ensuring Access to Clean Air and Water
New White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council and Interagency Council on Environmental Justice
Recording of a 90-minute CLE video webinar with Q&A
This CLE course will provide environmental counsel with the current Biden administration executive actions that address climate change and environmental justice. The panel will review how the current administration has acted via the White House and the EPA to require regulated entities to analyze the environmental effects of business operations that have disproportionately impacted underserved communities and develop concrete measures to address inequities.
Outline
- Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad
- Section 220
- Interagency Council and Advisory Council
- Section 222
- EPA
- DOJ
- Section 220
- CLEAN Future Act
- Future administrative and legislative actions
Benefits
The panel will review these and other important issues:
- What impact do the current EOs have on environmental enforcement?
- What has EPA been directed to do under the first Biden EOs? What has the DOJ been directed to do?
- What is the likelihood of a wave of future citizen suit actions brought in pursuit of environmental justice?
- How can counsel be prepared for the apparent paradigm shift being driven by the Biden administration?
Faculty
James D. Brusslan
Attorney
Levenfeld Pearlstein
Mr. Brusslan leads the firm's Environmental Law practice. He has more than 25 years of experience representing... | Read More
Mr. Brusslan leads the firm's Environmental Law practice. He has more than 25 years of experience representing corporate clients, government bodies, and citizens in complex environmental litigation and counseling matters. He has won significant environmental cases in federal courts, was counsel of record in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, and has filed suits under virtually all environmental laws. With his extensive litigation background, Mr. Brusslan assists clients in their transactional matters by recognizing how their everyday decisions regarding environmental issues will play out in the courtroom, if necessary in the future. As a former attorney with the U.S. EPA, he has the knowledge to help clients efficiently address environmental matters with government bodies. Mr. Brusslan regularly speaks before groups such as the American Bar Association and Northwestern University School of Law on environmental citizen suits and a variety of other environmental issues.
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Paul C. Freeman
Senior Counsel
Crowell & Moring
Mr. Freeman is a member of the firm’s Environment & Natural Resources and Government Contracts groups. He... | Read More
Mr. Freeman is a member of the firm’s Environment & Natural Resources and Government Contracts groups. He brings two decades of diverse experience advising clients in the energy, maritime, and aerospace and defense industries on a range of issues, with a primary emphasis on matters involving enforcement defense, litigation, and risk management. Mr. Freeman routinely advises clients in response to investigations by, or inquiries from, a range of regulators, primarily the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and also including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Department of Defense Inspector General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and state attorneys general.
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Peggy Otum
Partner; Co-Chair, Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Practice
Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr
Ms. Otum focuses her practice on complex environmental litigation and regulatory compliance counseling. During her more... | Read More
Ms. Otum focuses her practice on complex environmental litigation and regulatory compliance counseling. During her more than 16 years of experience representing corporate clients in a variety of environmental regulatory compliance, litigation and transactional matters spanning multiple jurisdictions, Ms. Otum has counseled clients in high-stakes matters, compliance and enforcement actions, contaminated site cleanups, superfund cost recovery actions, industrial site remediation, toxic tort litigation, land purchase and divestitures, worker safety issues, and corporate successor liability issues. She has worked directly with officials from multiple state and federal agencies to resolve enforcement and compliance matters, primarily under the RCRA, the CAA, and CERCLA. Ms. Otum’s experience also encompasses regularly advising clients on environmental aspects of corporate transactions, including identifying and evaluating environmental liabilities associated with manufacturing facilities, negotiating and drafting environmental provisions in corporate agreements, and advising clients on environmental insurance, public relations and development activities.
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