Monitoring the Environmental, Health & Safety and Energy Landscape
Week of October 5, 2026
From AI-powered permitting and evolving federal permitting reforms to the continued resurgence of nuclear energy and new legal battles over fuel economy standards, this week offered another reminder that energy and environmental policy remain deeply intertwined with technology, infrastructure, and regulatory certainty. Here are a few developments that caught my…
Week of September 28
The environmental and energy world finished September much the same way it spent most of 2026: debating how to balance environmental protection and economic growth. This week’s stories spanned climate litigation, PFAS regulation, electric grid modernization, workplace safety, and federal efforts to reevaluate environmental review and transportation policies.
Supreme Court to…
Week of September 21
As September winds down, a familiar theme continues to emerge across the environmental and energy landscape: the challenge of balancing growing energy demand with reliability, affordability, and environmental protection. This week’s developments focused heavily on data centers, duck curves (grid impacts), PFAS, renewable energy policy, and the increasingly important role courts…
Week of September 14
As summer officially gives way to fall, this week’s environmental and energy headlines reflected several themes that have dominated much of 2026: data centers, grid reliability, critical minerals, PFAS, artificial intelligence, and the continued reshaping of federal environmental policy. Courts, Congress, regulators, and industry all remained busy as debates continued over…
Week of September 7
As the calendar turns toward fall, last week’s environmental and energy headlines reflected both familiar trends and a few surprises. Data centers, grid infrastructure, nuclear energy, permitting disputes, and environmental regulation all remained in the spotlight. At the same time, I came across a particularly intriguing research project involving discarded oyster…
Week of August 31, 2026
Labor Day may mark the unofficial end of summer, but environmental and energy regulators, courts, and policymakers show no signs of slowing down. Last week’s developments focused on several familiar themes, including federal permitting reform, the ongoing evolution of Clean Water Act jurisdiction, state climate initiatives, the impact of Congressional…
Week of August 24, 2026
This week’s developments highlight the increasingly close relationship among energy security, emerging technologies, and environmental constraints. Nuclear deployment, grid resilience, data center growth, water demand, and chemical regulation are all creating new opportunities and new legal and operational risks.
Army Plans Major Microreactor Deployment
The U.S. Army plans to invest…
Week of August 17
As August winds down and many people squeeze in one last summer getaway, the environmental and energy world continues to generate headlines. This week’s developments focused on several recurring themes we’ve been watching throughout 2026: PFAS, data centers, grid growth, and the continuing evolution of Superfund policy.
Court Upholds EPA’s PFAS…
Week of August 10
Even during the dog days of summer, the environmental and energy world rarely stays quiet for long. This week’s headlines featured multibillion-dollar PFAS settlements, new restrictions on critical mineral exports, renewed scrutiny of offshore wind projects, and continued debate over the scope of federal agency authority. Please reach out if you…
Week of August 3
This was another week where the courts were as active as the regulators. Decisions involving EPA authority, climate liability, renewable energy development, and grid modernization continued to shape the legal and regulatory landscape, while states and regulators wrestled with the growing demand that AI and data centers are placing on the…
