Environmental Law 101: Fatal Mistakes — From the Challenger Disaster to British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon Catastrophe to Freedom Industry’s Elk River Mess.

I have learned from 45 years of practicing environmental law that managers who otherwise excel in their jobs are not necessarily good at making decisions relating to how to deal with environmental crises–and with the press, the public and regulators.  They, also, aren’t very good at avoiding crises in the first place—for a whole variety of reasons including complacency or having too much faith in technology. Robert Mittelstaedt, Jr., the former Dean of the W.C....
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Environmental Law 101: The Importance of Manufacturing to America.

I am biased. I am pro-jobs. I have also always thought that employment and environmental protection are not mutually exclusive. Maybe I am influenced by that fact that I come from northern Wisconsin which is naturally beautiful, albeit economically depressed. Maybe it is my economics background; or my career-long experience with environmental law and regulation. But the reason doesn’t make any difference because the answer is the same. We live in an ideologically simple society;...
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Environmental Law 101: Jack Welch and the Art of Negotiation

On my website, I advocate a three step approach to successfully manage environmental issues.  I advocate defining success ahead of negotiations; letting the facts determine strategy; and myopically focusing on outcome rather than on personalities or other distractions.  As I prepared this post, the shutdown of the federal government had just ended and many commentators, such as Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, argued that the stalemate in Washington is because our political leaders...
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Environmental Law 101: Environmental Compliance–a Cost or an Opportunity?

American prides itself as being a country that conforms to the “rule of law.” Unfortunately, that term has become politicized and, as a result, trite. The “talking heads” in the media use the term to support whatever position they are advocating on any given day. My clients and I have always had to deal with reality and, as a consequence, the “rule of law” was actually a meaningful concept. Decades ago, when I was asked...
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Environmental Law 101: The Role of Being Open Minded.

I have previously written about my personal algorithm for resolving major enforcement cases or successfully getting complex projects permitted—i.e., defining success, planning strategically and focusing on outcome. This process requires some effort because it requires thinking. I am constantly amazed, however, by the self-assuredness of the advice given by many lawyers and consultants on complex issues. Many times, of course, this is the “salesman” talking—the person wants to “make the sale” and is willing to...
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Environmental Law 101: A Short History of American Environmental Law.

Editor’s Note: As I have written previously, I have spent my entire career practicing “environmental law” on behalf of trade associations, municipalities and individual corporations even though, when I graduated from law school in 1968, there was not a single course on the subject in the curriculum. I prepared the article below for a legal conference in the fall of 2013. It provides a short summary history of United States environmental law which I hope...
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