Clients from around the world come to us for our extensive knowledge of environmental law and its far-reaching implications. It is the practice area that helped launch our firm, and the one that continues to play a key role in driving the growth of our business.
Babst Calland’s Environmental Practice Group provides a nationwide clientele with sophisticated and practical representation in all aspects of environmental law. With regulatory attorneys who focus their practices exclusively in this field, our Environmental Practice Group offers a team of seasoned practitioners who can meet the complex challenges that our clients confront.
Our varied and extensive backgrounds in the environmental and health and safety fields, combined with our representation of clients throughout the country, have made Babst Calland one of the nation’s premier law firms in the environmental area.
Focused Environmental Practice Areas
Because of the firm’s broad, nationwide client base, attorneys in the Environmental Practice Group are able to focus their practices on specific environmental areas, such as air pollution, industrial and municipal wastewater management, hazardous and solid waste, complex site remediation, natural resource damages, chemical regulation and occupational safety and health. A Babst Calland client with a hazardous waste issue will have that matter addressed by an attorney who works extensively with hazardous waste programs across the United States. That attorney will be able to apply hazardous waste experience from different industrial sectors, different U.S. EPA regions and different states. As a result, clients do not have to endure a long learning curve or pay for advice based solely upon legal research, but little or no experience.
Broad Range of Experience and Billing Rates
The extent and range of experience levels within the group also distinguish Babst Calland’s environmental practice from other firms. Babst Calland has a number of individual attorneys with more than 40 years of environmental experience. These attorneys have had the benefit of participating in the development of the primary federal and state statutory and regulatory programs, giving them a profound and fundamental understanding of how these environmental programs apply to the firm’s broad spectrum of clients. Indeed, our attorneys participated in the initial implementation of, and challenges to, key provisions of what have become today’s air, water and waste regulatory programs.
Babst Calland also has environmental attorneys with varying levels of environmental experience from one year to more than 40 years. This range of experience and billing rates allows Babst Calland to perform work at the most cost-efficient level. Firms with fewer attorneys do not have the ability to match experience and billing rates with the various tasks involved in solving an environmental problem, resulting in significantly higher fees for their clients.
Strong Technical Backgrounds
Babst Calland’s environmental attorneys also have a wealth of technical backgrounds that help them to solve complex environmental problems and work with and coordinate the efforts of environmental consultants and scientists. For example, the group includes attorneys with undergraduate degrees in electrical engineering, chemical engineering, environmental studies, biophysics, microbiology, biology and information and decision systems, as well as with graduate degrees in health physics and industrial hygiene, environmental engineering, oceanography, limnology, ecology and forensic chemistry.
Plant-Based Experience
Babst Calland has taken this technical background and experience and applied it at the plant facility level to develop practical solutions for clients. Knowledge of the environmental regulations is only part of the process involved in providing effective environmental legal services. It is the ability to translate those requirements in the specific context of a client’s manufacturing process or contaminated property that adds true value to the service provided. Babst Calland attorneys understand the value of knowing our clients’ processes and facilities, and routinely spend time in the field so that practical solutions are not missed because of a lack of understanding of the framework in which an environmental problem arises.
This practical perspective also has enabled Babst Calland to develop effective preventive law programs that have assisted our clients in reducing their environmental exposures. For example, our environmental attorneys have conducted numerous compliance and transactional audits, and developed environmental training programs to cover everything from general environmental awareness to specifically-focused programs on such topics as preparing for a multimedia inspection and determining when an installation permit is required for an air emission source.
Full Range of Environmental Services
Complementing the talents of our environmental attorneys are the strengths of Babst Calland’s other practice groups including Corporate and Commercial, Construction, Employment and Labor, Energy and Natural Resources, Land Use and Public Sector and Litigation. Attorneys from these other practice groups routinely team with the attorneys in the Environmental Practice Group to create a synergy not otherwise found in today’s legal market. Through this team approach, our attorneys take the practice of environmental law beyond its traditional boundaries by not only resolving the problems of today, but by averting or minimizing future environmental conflicts.
Babst Calland environmental attorneys provide seamless, cost-effective solutions for all your environmental concerns. Given the breadth and depth of our attorneys’ knowledge and practical experience with complex environmental issues, Babst Calland’s Environmental Practice Group is uniquely positioned to help our clients face the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century.
Amidst EPA’s Reconsideration, PADEP Publishes Proposed State Plan for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Existing Oil and Natural Gas Facilities
Environmental Alert
(by Gary Steinbauer and Gina Buchman)
On May 31, 2025, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) published notice of opportunity for public comment on its Proposed State Plan for 40 CFR Part 60, Subpart OOOOc Emissions Guidelines for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Existing Crude Oil and Natural Gas Facilities in the Pennsylvania Bulletin. …
Supreme Court Significantly Scales Back Scope of NEPA Review for Infrastructure Projects
Environmental Alert
(by Robert Stonestreet)
Through a unanimous 8-0 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States addressed what it described as “continuing confusion and disagreement in the Courts of Appeals” over the scope of judicial review for claims asserting violations of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). …
EQB Tables Petition for Study to Increase Required Minimum Setbacks from Unconventional Oil and Gas Wells
The Foundation Mineral and Energy Law Newsletter
Pennsylvania – Oil & Gas
(by Joe Reinhart, Sean McGovern, Matt Wood and Alex Graf)
On April 8, 2025, the Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board (EQB) tabled consideration of the Clean Air Council (CAC) and Environmental Integrity Project’s (EIP) petition for a rulemaking seeking to amend 25 Pa. …
PADEP to Rescind and Revise Water Supply Replacement Technical Guidance Documents Due to Changes to Coal and Noncoal Regulations
The Foundation Mineral and Energy Law Newsletter
Pennsylvania – Mining
(by Joe Reinhart, Sean McGovern, Christina Puhnaty and Ethan Johnson)
In a February 25, 2025, Mining and Reclamation Advisory Board and Aggregate Advisory Board Joint Regulation, Legislation, and Technical Committee Meeting, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) presented its plans to rescind two technical guidance documents (TGDs) and revise two others due to the TGDs being inaccurate and out of date after changes to Pennsylvania’s coal regulations and noncoal regulations. …
EPA Announces Plan to Scale Back and Extend Compliance Deadlines for Federal Drinking Water Regulations on PFAS
Environmental Alert
(Sloane Wildman and Jessica Deyoe)
On May 14, 2025, less than three weeks after the U.S. …
U.S. Supreme Court Invalidates NPDES Permit End-Result Provisions
Environmental Alert
(by Lisa Bruderly, Joseph Schaeffer, and Alexandra Graf)
On March 4, 2025, the U.S. …
Treasury Department Suspends Enforcement of Corporate Transparency Act’s BOI Reporting Requirements
Firm Alert
(by Chris Farmakis, Susanna Bagdasarova, Kate Cooper, and Dane Fennell)
In yet another twist in the ongoing roller coaster ride of Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) compliance, the U.S. …
