The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently approved changes to the vehicle inspection and maintenance program of the State of Illinois.  These changes were proposed by the Illinois EPA as revisions to the State Implementation Plan, which details how Illinois will comply with the Clean Air Act and its implementing regulations.

My law firm, Peckar & Abramson, P.C., recently issued a press release congratulating me on being elected to the Chicago Bar Association Board of Managers: PECKAR & ABRAMSON, P.C.’S DAVID J. SCRIVEN-YOUNG ELECTED TO CHICAGO BAR ASSOCIATION BOARD OF MANAGERS  NEW YORK—July 17, 2014 – Peckar & Abramson, P.C. (P&A) is pleased to announce that David J. Scriven-Young, Senior Associate in the firm’s Chicago office, has been elected to serve on the Chicago Bar Association (CBA) Board of Managers. Mr. Scriven-Young will serve a two-year term as one of 24 CBA board members. Leading the CBA with Chicago’s Legal Elite Mr. Scriven-Young was sworn in to the CBA Board of Managers on Thursday, June 26, 2014. He will help lead the association and contribute to the development of its ongoing policies and programming as well as the management of its operating budget.The CBA Board of Managers consists of 24 total members of Chicago’s legal elite, including a federal district court judge, two judges from the Circuit Court of Cook County and several general counsels from both non-profit and for-profit companies. The Board includes 16 members elected by the membership and 6 officers including the President, First Vice-President, Second Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer and Immediate Past President. Mr. Scriven-Young joins seven other new managers on the 2014-2015 CBA board.

On July 23, 2014, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn announced that he signed legislation designed to help combat flooding across the state and to protect Illinois’ drinking water.  The legislation makes stormwater management and treatment projects available for state financial assistance following last year’s record rainfall and severe flooding that affected communities across Illinois.  A copy of the new law can be found here. More specifically, the new law amends the Environmental Protection Act to allow the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to use funds in the Water Pollution Control Loan Program to provide financial assistance for eligible projects, including those that encourage green infrastructure, that manage and treat stormwater, and that maintain and restore natural hydrology by infiltrating, evapotranspiring, and capturing and using stormwater.  The new law also provides that, in planning projects for which financing will be sought from the Water Pollution Control Loan Program, municipalities should consider such things as:  a project’s lifetime costs; the availability of long-term funding for the construction, operation, maintenance, and replacement of the project; the resilience of the projects to the effects of climate change; the project’s ability to increase water efficiency; the capacity of a project to restore natural hydrology or to preserve or restore landscape features; the cost-effectiveness of the project; and the overall environmental innovativeness of the project.  The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has been given the authority to adopt rules stating criteria for the prioritization of the issuance of the loans.  Such rules would include criteria designed to encourage green infrastructure, water efficiency, environmentally innovative projects, and nutrient pollution removal.

The Illinois Appellate Court recently ruled that it is legal to require Commonwealth Edison to purchase power from the proposed FutureGen 2.0 project.  In Commonwealth Edison Co. v. Illinois Commerce Commission, 2014 IL App (1st) 130544, the court upheld the Illinois Commerce Commission's approval of an Illinois Power Agency proposal that required ComEd to enter into a sourcing agreement with FutureGen 2.0, which has been called "the world's first coal-fueled, near-zero emissions electric power plant".  Although ComEd insisted that the Commerce Commission exceeded its authority, the Court disagreed, pointing to state law that requires the utilities to source some of their electricity from clean coal or retrofitted facilities.

The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency recently announced that three Illinois communities will be receiving grants to cleanup contaminated properties and boost local economies by redeveloping former brownfield sites.  A brownfield site is a piece of property that is contaminated by a hazardous substance or other pollutant that complicates the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of that property.  EPA announced the following specific grants:

Congratulations to my law firm, Peckar & Abramson, P.C., on being named by Chambers & Partners as the nation's top construction law firm!  Here's the press release: Firm Wins Top Construction Law Award for Unprecedented Second Consecutive Year NEW YORK—June 19th, 2014 –Peckar & Abramson, P.C. (P&A) is pleased to announce that Chambers & Partners has selected the firm as the nation’s top construction law firm for the second consecutive year and for the third time in the twelve- year history of Chambers USA.  This marks the first time that Chambers has awarded a construction law firm this recognition three separate times, and the first time that the same firm has received the award two years in a row, demonstrating P&A’s indisputable standing as the nation’s foremost construction law practice.  Peckar & Abramson was honored with this award at the ninth annual Chambers USA Awards for Excellence, hosted on May 22, 2014 in New York City.

The U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois recently denied an attempt by Sierra Club to challenge an air pollution control construction permit issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the FutureGen 2.0 Project.  The Court ruled in Sierra Club Inc. v. FutureGen Industrial Alliance Inc. that the Sierra Club could not challenge the permit in federal court; instead, the Sierra Club must file an appeal in the Illinois Pollution Control Board, as required by Illinois law.