Environmental Insights
Analysis and practical guides on environmental.
2 articles, checklists, and guides on environmental law, written by the attorneys at MC Law. Every piece is general information, not legal advice—for a specific matter, contact the firm.
Environmental Permitting and Compliance: The Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and NEPA
Environmental compliance runs on permits, and a permit is both a shield and a trap: operating within its terms is a complete defense to most enforcement, and operating outside them is a strict liability violation regardless of whether any harm occurred. The two dominant programs—the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act—share an architecture in which the federal government sets standards, states administer permits under delegated authority, and private citizens may sue to enforce. NEPA operates differently, imposing a procedural obligation on federal agencies to study environmental effects before acting, and it has become the principal battleground over infrastructure and energy projects. This article covers the permitting programs a facility actually encounters, the compliance obligations that follow, the enforcement architecture including citizen suits, and the diligence and disclosure that transactions require.
Applying for an Environmental Permit: A Practical Guide
An environmental permit is the document that makes an operation lawful, and obtaining one is a project management exercise as much as a legal one. Most programs are administered by delegated state agencies whose requirements exceed the federal floor, most applications are found administratively incomplete on first submission, and the timeline is driven by agency review cycles and public participation requirements rather than by the applicant's schedule. The decisions that determine how long it takes and what conditions result are made before the application is filed: whether the facility can be structured to stay below a major source threshold, what control technology the analysis will support, and whether the site presents a jurisdictional or community issue. This guide covers the preparation, the application itself, the review and public participation process, and the appeal and compliance obligations that follow issuance.