Canada has just imposed restrictions against false or misleading statements made in marketing or other materials regarding the environmental impacts and benefits of goods and services -- “greenwashing.” These provisions were adopted as amendments to the Competition Act, enacted as part of the Government’s omnibus “Fall Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2023” (Bill C-59), which received royal Assent on June 20.
Read MoreTags: Environmental risks, Environmental, Environmental Projects, Environment, Environmental Policy
Effective March 12, 2020, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) prohibits its US attorneys from entering into settlements in which DOJ lowers penalties for defendants that agree to conduct “supplemental environmental projects (SEPs)”, if the SEP involves payments to a third party. This action is the latest in a series of DOJ moves against SEPs since President Trump took office. The first such step was a June 2017 DOJ management memorandum directing US attorneys NOT to agree to SEPs that include payments to third parties (I wrote about that memo HERE). The second was an August 2019 memorandum restricting use of SEPs in Clean Water Act (CWA) cases against state and local governments, in which DOJ rejected arguments that recent legislation allows them (I wrote about that memo HERE).
Read MoreTags: Business & Legal, Environmental risks, Environmental, EPA, clean water, clean air, DOJ, SEP, CWA, Environmental Projects