Insight & Commentary for the Business and Legal Community
On November 2, 2015, President Obama signed into law the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Improvement Act of 2015. The law required all federal agencies to increase civil penalties with inflation. While there were previous requirements to increase civil penalties, the new law provides for more dramatic increases attributable to the following changes:
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Back in April of this year, a citizen group filed a petition that argued Ohio illegally tried to exempt oil & gas companies from complying with federal emergency planning and citizen reporting requirements under the "Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act ("EPCRA"). EPCRA requires companies that store certain hazardous chemical above certain thresholds to inform…
U.S. EPA’s Environmental Audit Policy encourages companies to self-evaluate their compliance with environmental requirements and disclose any violations to EPA. As an incentive to disclose violations to EPA, the Audit Policy provides up to 100% forgiveness of gravity-based civil penalties if certain conditions are met.
U.S. EPA’s audit policy contains nine (9) conditions that must…
There are a myriad of federal statutes that require your company to report a spill to any of the following:
Failure to report a spill can lead to an enforcement action as well as civil penalties. Also, failure to…
