The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the “Corps”) (together the “Agencies”) have continued working on a proposed rule to revise the definition of “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) under the Clean Water Act (CWA or Act), which will soon move to the next stage of agency consideration.[1]
As routinely covered at Regulatory Oversight, state attorneys general have assumed an ever-more prominent role in driving national regulatory policy through advocacy and enforcement activities.[1] Underlying many of these efforts is an aggressive focus on environmental justice by the state attorneys general that reaches further than federal efforts. Most recently in U.S. EPA
The Department of Justice has loosened restrictions on the use of agency guidance documents to establish violations of underlying legal requirements in enforcement actions and other litigation. According to a memorandum by Attorney General Garland, DOJ attorneys may now “rely on relevant guidance documents in any appropriate and lawful circumstances, including when a guidance document