Environmental Justice

Overview

Crowell & Moring’s Environmental Justice Working Group brings together a diverse group of lawyers with years of environmental and environmental justice experience, encompassing both our extensive client representation and prior service in agencies including the Department of Justice, Environment and Natural Resource Division. Members of our working group have worked directly in assessing environmental regulations and their potential impacts, and directly implemented Environmental Justice Executive Orders.

Our team understands the current uncertainties and dramatically changing landscape that the regulated sector and other stakeholders face from evolving environmental justice policies, and we closely monitor environmental justice driven regulations and initiatives to provide our clients with creative, proactive, and relevant solutions necessary to meet the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead. Using the emerging priorities and actions of the current administration, we provide compliance and regulatory counseling and representation on enforcement actions, investigations, negotiations, and disputes across several sectors, including:

Manufacturing;
Energy Production, including utilities, renewables, and oil and gas;
Petrochemicals, Pesticides, and other chemicals;
Transportation;
Government Contracting;
Mining and Natural Resources;
Technology; and

We expect the Trump Administration to continue to implement and enforce changes in policies affecting the federal focus on environmental justice. We also expect certain states to continue to vigorously enforce their respective—and potentially contradictory—policies. Likewise, companies need to stay current with developments in this area and fully assess the shifting federal landscape while also considering the environmental justice policies in place in states where they do business. In that effort, we help clients:

Assess, track, and monitor recent actions taken by the federal government’s executive and legislative branches;
Assess developments at the state level regarding regulations that track or contradict current federal actions, and advise on potential enforcement impacts on businesses;
Defend businesses in state and federal enforcement actions under various environmental laws;
Conduct environmental justice risk assessments, audits, and internal investigations;
Enhance communication with state and federal agencies regarding compliance with environmental justice policy, regulation, and laws; and
Develop environmental justice strategies in pursuing regulatory approvals for projects and operations, while maintaining compliance with the varied federal and state requirements, including the development of company-wide or site-specific environmental policies and programs that comply with environmental justice policies that directly impact the businesses where they practice.

Our team understands the current uncertainties and dramatically changing landscape that the regulated sector and other stakeholders face from evolving environmental justice policies, and we closely monitor environmental justice driven regulations and initiatives to provide our clients with creative, proactive, and relevant solutions necessary to meet the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead. Using the emerging priorities and actions of the current administration, we provide compliance and regulatory counseling and representation on enforcement actions, investigations, negotiations, and disputes across several sectors, including:

Manufacturing;
Energy Production, including utilities, renewables, and oil and gas;
Petrochemicals, Pesticides, and other chemicals;
Transportation;
Government Contracting;
Mining and Natural Resources;
Technology; and

We expect the Trump Administration to continue to implement and enforce changes in policies affecting the federal focus on environmental justice. We also expect certain states to continue to vigorously enforce their respective—and potentially contradictory—policies. Likewise, companies need to stay current with developments in this area and fully assess the shifting federal landscape while also considering the environmental justice policies in place in states where they do business. In that effort, we help clients:

Assess, track, and monitor recent actions taken by the federal government’s executive and legislative branches;
Assess developments at the state level regarding regulations that track or contradict current federal actions, and advise on potential enforcement impacts on businesses;
Defend businesses in state and federal enforcement actions under various environmental laws;
Conduct environmental justice risk assessments, audits, and internal investigations;
Enhance communication with state and federal agencies regarding compliance with environmental justice policy, regulation, and laws; and
Develop environmental justice strategies in pursuing regulatory approvals for projects and operations, while maintaining compliance with the varied federal and state requirements, including the development of company-wide or site-specific environmental policies and programs that comply with environmental justice policies that directly impact the businesses where they practice.