Insights

Washington – December 3, 2024: The Washingtonian has named five Crowell & Moring partners to its 2024 “Top Lawyers” list, featuring the D.C. area’s best legal talent.

Washington – June 6, 2024: Crowell & Moring earned 78 rankings for 67 lawyers, as well as 41 national and statewide practice area rankings, in the Chambers USA 2024 guide. The rankings are driven by independent interviews of clients and lawyers at peer firms.

On May 29, 2025, the Supreme Court issued its long-awaited decision in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County. In a five-justice majority opinion written by Justice Kavanaugh, the Court held that the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) does not require review of the environmental impacts of “upstream” or “downstream” related projects, and reiterated: “The bedrock principle of judicial review in NEPA cases can be stated in a word: Deference.”[1] This decision comes as the federal government works to expedite what over the years have become lengthy NEPA review processes, and not long after the White House Council on Environmental Quality rescinded its NEPA regulations.

On May 14, 2025, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) announced that it will keep the current National Primary Drinking Water Regulations (“NPDWR”) for perfluorooctanoic acid (“PFOA”) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (“PFOS”) under the Safe Drinking Water Act (“SDWA”), while extending the compliance deadline from 2029 to 2031. EPA further announced it plans to rescind requirements in those regulations applicable to other PFAS and mixtures of certain PFAS in drinking water. The NPDWR consists of legally enforceable primary standards and treatment techniques that apply to public water systems and guide EPA’s enforcement of the SDWA. This announcement follows EPA’s April 28, 2025 press release outlining its priorities for PFAS enforcement, which included 21 actions EPA intends to take to address PFAS and “engage with Congress and industry to establish a clear liability framework that ensures the polluter pays and passive receivers are protected.”

Following a directive from President Trump,[1] and in the wake of two court decisions concluding the Council on Environmental Quality (“CEQ”) had no authority to promulgate them in the first place, CEQ’s National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) regulations are being removed from the Code of Federal Regulations.

Crowell & Moring’s Tax Group invites you to join us for the 37th Annual Managing Tax Audits and Appeals. The seminar will provide an overview of everything you need to know about recent developments and hot topics in tax, from planning through litigation, including perspectives from the IRS.

The EEI Legal Conference is a bi-annual meeting for the General Counsels of shareholder-owned electricity companies to receive updates on new laws and trends in the electric power sector. Partner David Chung will speak on the panel titled “Siting and Permitting: How Do We Get Transmission Built Faster?” This panel will identify to siting and permitting challenges, the range of proposed solutions, and EEI member preferences. It also will review legislation proposed to date, related Federal Energy Regulatory Activity, and regulatory options.

Join Crowell & Moring for a two-part webinar series that will explore the issues impacting investment, development, and operation of water infrastructure in 2021 and beyond. 

The fourth webinar in our Election 2020 series will focus on the presidential candidates’ platforms on environmental law and policy and how American businesses, workers and consumers will have to prepare for two very different worlds depending upon the election outcome. In this roundtable webinar, our lawyers will discuss what’s at stake, the opportunities that exist to influence policy making, and how to leverage administration and congressional priorities under various election scenarios for the coming years, including:

As regulated industries continue to confront mounting disruptions and, in some cases, temporary shutdown as a consequence of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, they face the added challenge of managing a range of unrelenting environmental compliance obligations at both the federal and state levels.