Environmental Law Matters

The U.S. Department of Justice issued new guidelines on May 5, 2022, for supplemental environmental projects (SEPs) as part of a settlement in civil matters. The Trump administration halted nearly all SEPs in 2017 because of the concern that settlements involving payments to third parties were not reasonably related to the violation, and were a tool for third parties to obtain funding and other benefits they could not get but for the SEP. In 2020, Attorney General Barr clarified the policy by saying payments to non-governmental third-parties “if properly structured,” do not ...