Growth-inducing impacts – the ways a project can foster economic, population, and housing growth – are often treated as a secondary issue when being analyzed under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). But for large…
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The California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) continues to advance one of the largest infrastructure programs in the United States, connecting major population centers across more than 800 miles of planned rail. As the program progresses…
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On March 31, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum convened a meeting of the “God Squad,” a rarely used panel with authority to override Endangered Species Act protections. Officially called the Endangered Species Committee, the group can…
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On Feb 12, 2026, President Trump and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the repeal of the endangerment finding that gave EPA the authority to treat greenhouse gas emissions as air pollutants under…
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More Than a Career Move After spending quite a bit of time in federal service, I transitioned into consulting about three years ago. At first glance, the work looked familiar. The same statutes. The same…
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With just days left to comment, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing another revision to the federal definition of Waters of the United States, often referred to as “WOTUS”. Public comments on the…
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Many federal agencies have already been targeting one-year EAs for years. At Scout, this has long been our standard. What has truly shifted under the updated Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) guidance wasn’t the timeline…
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On October 23, 2025, I was honored to deliver a presentation titled “San Diego Bay Sediment Remediation: A Historical Overview” at the annual Western Dredging Association (WEDA) Pacific Chapter conference in Waikiki, Hawaii. The presentation…
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The Trump Administration has made permitting reform a centerpiece of its infrastructure agenda. The White House has noted that major projects ‘often take longer to receive Federal permits than to build,’ and the Council on…
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Imagine a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review where final environmental assessments (EAs) and environmental impact statements (EISs) are posted online with no opportunity for public comment. That scenario is already occurring across several agencies…
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