July 27, 2021 8:30–10:00 AM (PT) | 11:30 AM–1:00 PM (ET)
Speakers P.E. Hudson,Esq., Dep't of the Navy, Office of General Counsel Michael Smith, Director of Environmental Process & Policy at WSP USA
Moderator Fred Wagner, Venable LLP
About
This webinar will mirror the Case Law presentation provided during the NAEP 2021 Conference & Training Symposium, with updates as warranted. The webinar is based on a paper that reviews substantive National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) cases issued by United States Courts of Appeals in 2020. The implications of the decisions and relevance to NEPA practitioners will be explained. This presentation will summarize the more detailed paper prepared for the NAEP 2021 Conference & Training Symposium. The paper briefly explains, with an emphasis on the substantive NEPA findings, each opinion issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals. The paper identifies statistics regarding the NEPA appellate opinions, such as a twelve-year record of NEPA cases, organized by circuit, and by year. The paper also identifies the agencies involved in each case and presents statistics relevant to the agencies; the paper further identifies the prevailing ratio of federal agencies that were challenged, including by agency and by document type (categorical exclusion, environmental assessment, environmental impact statement).
The paper analyzes the trends in the court opinions involving NEPA for 2020, with an emphasis on substantive NEPA practice, and by a grouping of the cases. Finally, each court opinion is paraphrased and organized in a manner easy to read for practitioners to find the court's ruling. Appellate opinions are grouped and analyzed by agency. Past trends include challenges to purpose and need, alternatives considered, public comment, scientific impact assessment methodologies, GHG emissions and climate change impact assessment, incomplete or unavailable information, determination of significance, segmentation, duty to supplement, connected actions, federal actions, cumulative impact assessment, mitigation, monitoring, and adaptive management. Suggestions for improving the implementation of the NEPA process and to meeting current challenges are offered, looking ahead to the future with a renewed emphasis on one of the world's oldest and most forward-looking environmental laws.
Moderator
Fred Wagner, Director at Large
Venable LLP
Fred Wagner focuses on environmental and natural-resources issues associated with major infrastructure, mining, and energy project development. Fred manages and defends environmental reviews performed under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) or equivalent state statutes. He works with public agencies and private developers to secure permits and approvals from federal and state regulators under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act (CWA), the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). Fred understands the full range of issues surrounding the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) surface transportation programs, including grant management, procurement, suspension and debarment, and safety regulations. During his career, Fred has handled a wide variety of environmental litigation in federal trial and appellate courts across the country, from citizen suits to government enforcement actions and Administration Procedure Act (APA) challenges.
Speakers
P.E. Hudson, Esq.
Dept of the Navy, OGC
P.E. Hudson, Esq. is the Counsel, Department of the Navy Office of General Counsel in Naval Base Ventura County, California, where she serves as the Counsel for the Center for Seabees and Facilities Engineers and teaches for Civil Engineer Corps Officers School. The focus of her practice is environmental law and planning, and specifically NEPA; she also develops and teaches courses involving NEPA, environmental planning and impact analysis, and environmental law, with a special emphasis on coastal and ocean resources, to federal employees. She has published fourteen federal agency, academic and peer-reviewed articles on environmental planning and impact assessment since 2013. She served on the NAEP Committee for Best Practice Principles for Environmental Assessments, a CEQ Pilot Project, and received the NAEP's President's Service Award in 2014 and 2019.
She formerly served as a litigator at a large firm in private practice, and as a federal clerk. She is a member of the bars of California, Florida, and Georgia and the Supreme Court of the United States. Ms. Hudson retired from the Navy as a Commander (Oceanography). Any views expressed are Ms. Hudson’s personal views and not necessarily those of the Department of Defense, Navy, or Federal Government.
Michael Smith, Ph.D., Director
WSP USA
Dr. Smith has over 28 Years of NEPA experience. He is currently a Director of Environmental Process & Policy at WSP USA, where he focuses his practice on NEPA project and program management, technical analysis, policy development, and training/education for a wide range of public and private sector clients. He is a NAEP Board Member and the California AEP Representative.
He has managed and overseen some of the nation's largest, most complex, and highly controversial projects, including major energy and transportation infrastructure projects, regulation of genetically engineered plants, commercial space transportation operations, and approval of new fuel economy standards for motor vehicles. He holds a Ph.D. in Environmental and Natural Resources Sociology, an M.A. in Geography, and a B.A in Environmental Studies.
Belonging: Leadership When Guiding Through Transition
April 29, 2021
Speakers
Asti Davis from Baton Rouge Laticia Hall-Cannon from Syracuse Ali H. Mir from LA
Moderator
Ron Deverman
Have you wanted to expand your professional network? Do you want to become a leader in the environmental professions? NOW is your opportunity. Listen to NAEP’s free informational webinar “Belonging: Leadership When Guiding Through Transition” to learn more about leadership opportunities, to hear three fascinating personal career stories, and to discuss the value of getting involved and staying involved with NAEP, its affiliated Chapters, and other environmental professional associations.
For this month’s webinar our unique career storytellers include Baton Rouge native Asti Davis who works at the intersection of law and environmental justice with a focus on green economies, social justice, urban forestry and policymaking. She believes her work in environmental justice is an integral component of the continuing civil rights movement. Asti also runs a social media platform called Environista to help spread awareness of legal and social justice issues.
Latisia Hall-Cannon from Syracuse is a Program Quality Engineering Manager and Syracuse Site Diversity & Inclusion Lead with Lockheed Martin. She is well versed in listening and communicating to resolve business conflicts. She is passionate about diversity and inclusion and the importance of all people growing in areas of leadership. Latisia also runs a social media platform for social, cultural, and educational events in and around Syracuse. She hosts two series, “WOKE Wednesday” and “The WOKE Lifestyle,” that give exposure to new ideas on how to build up urban communities and celebrate our collective cultures.
Our third career storyteller is Ali H. Mir, Vice President and West Region Planning Director of STV, Inc. Ali has led NEPA/CEQA environmental clearances for community planning projects, residential and retail development projects, educational institution projects, and bus and rail transit projects in California and Oregon. Ali served as the Director of Muslim Student Life at the University of Southern California (USC) for five years and currently serves as American Planning Association-Los Angeles Section’s Equity Director. Ali is currently leading the development of a Gender Action Plan for LA Metro.
This webinar will be moderated by Ron Deverman, NAEP Past President and NAEP Fellow.
Corporate Social Responsibility in Environmental Business
March 2, 2021
Speakers
Michael Hendrix, LSA Rich Walter Preeti Verma
Moderator
Corine de Zeeuw
Sustainability reporting and planning has become more mainstream in recent years. The development of having investors require companies to report on sustainability sends a signal. It is now considered of importance, not only for the environment, employees, and communities, but certainly also from a risk and financial perspective. In this webinar, our expert panel will provide insight into the Corporate Sustainability Plans of their organizations, how these have been developed, and their benefits.
Michael Hendrix will be speaking on the development and implementation of the Corporate Sustainability Plan of LSA Associates. Michael has been involved in the development and will elaborate on how to set a Corporate Sustainability Plan up from the start. Of special interest is the fact that LSA Associates is an employee-owned company and therefore the Plan is customized so that every employee has a part in meeting the company’s sustainability goals.
Rich Walter will present the Corporate Sustainability Plan for ICF, a global advisory and digital services provider with approximately 7,000 employees.
Preeti Verma will discuss the various sustainability reporting protocols including Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).
Join us to learn the ins and outs of setting up a Corporate Sustainability Plan. This time not for our clients, but our environmental and engineering consultancies.
Before planning and requesting a webinar with NAEP, please view, gather, and send the following information to the NAEP Office for approval:
Webinar & Speaker Information
Title of Event
Description of Event (Including Learning Objectives)
Top 3 Reasons Why an Attendee Should Register
Speaker names and titles as they would like marketed
Speaker contact information
Speaker bios
Speaker headshots
Moderator Information
Moderator name and title as they would like marketed
Moderator contact information
Moderator bio
Moderator headshot
To effectively market your event, all of the information above must be provided to the NAEP Office at least 1 month prior to the event. Incomplete information will delay the publishing of the event webpage and registration form.
The National Association of Environmental Professionals (NAEP) will host the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Case Law Update webinar on Thursday, September 5, 2019.
This webinar will review substantive National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) cases issued by United States Courts of Appeals in 2018. The implications of the decisions and relevance to NEPA practitioners will be explained. This webinar will summarize the more detailed paper prepared for this webinar.
The paper briefly explains, with an emphasis on the substantive NEPA findings, each opinion issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals. The paper identifies statistics regarding the NEPA appellate opinions, such as ten-year record of NEPA cases, organized by circuit, and by year. The paper also identifies the agencies involved in each case, and presents statistics relevant to the agencies; the paper further identifies the prevailing ratio of federal agencies, including by agency and by document type (categorical exclusion, environmental assessment, environmental impact statement).
The paper analyzes the trends in the court opinions involving NEPA for 2018, with an emphasis on substantive NEPA practice, and by grouping of the cases. Finally, each court opinion is paraphrased and organized in a manner easy to read for practitioners to find the court’s ruling. Appellate opinions are grouped and analyzed by the agency. Past trends include challenges to the purpose and need, alternatives considered, public comment, scientific impact assessment methodologies, GHG emissions and climate change impact assessment, incomplete or unavailable information, determination of significance, segmentation, duty to supplement, connected actions, federal actions, cumulative impact assessment, mitigation, monitoring, and adaptive management.
Michael is a Senior Environmental Practice Leader for National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) with GEI Consultants in Sacramento, CA, one of the nation's leading geotechnical, environmental, water resources, and ecological science and engineering firms. GEI has provided consulting and engineering services on over 35,000 projects in all 50 U.S. states and internationally in over 20 countries. His current work focuses on providing project and program management, technical analysis and review, policy development and review, and training and education focused on National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) compliance for some of the nation's and California’s most complex and controversial projects relating to energy development, transportation infrastructure projects, approvals of genetically engineered plants, commercial space transportation operations, and rulemakings for national motor vehicle fuel economy standards. He frequently provides training and strategic advice for NEPA and related environmental compliance requirements as an adjunct faculty member at numerous educational institutions, including the UC Davis Extension Land Use and Natural Resources Program, the UCLA Extension Sustainability Program, and the NEPA Certificate Program at the Quinney College of Natural Resources at Utah State University.
He has served as a Science & Technology Policy Fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) at the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) headquarters Office of Water and Office of Federal Activities in Washington, DC. He has also held positions with the U.S. Department of Interior – National Park Service in Biscayne, Glacier and Yosemite National Parks. He holds a Ph.D. in Environmental and Natural Resources Sociology from Utah State University, an M.A. in Geography and Resources from the University of Wyoming, and a B.A. in Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
P.E. Hudson, Esq., Dep't of the Navy, Office of General Counsel
P.E. Hudson, Esq. is the Counsel, Department of the Navy Office of General Counsel, at Center for Seabees and Facilities Engineering and Civil Engineer Corps Officer School at Naval Base Ventura County, California. The focus of her practice is environmental law and planning, and specifically NEPA; she also develops and teaches courses involving NEPA, environmental planning and impact analysis, and environmental law, with a special emphasis on coastal and ocean resources, to federal employees. She has published 13 federal agency, academic, and peer-reviewed articles on environmental planning and impact assessment since 2013. She has 17 years of NEPA experience, 34 years of federal agency experience. She served as the informal Chair of the NAEP CEQ Pilot Project, Best Practice Principles for Environmental Assessments, which was lauded by the CEQ. She also received the NAEP President's Service Award in 2013 and 2015. She is a retired Navy Commander. **The views expressed are solely the personal views of the author and do not reflect those of the Department of the Navy, the Department of Defense or the Federal Government.
Fred Wagner, Director at Large
Michael Smith, Ph.D., Director
Michael Smith, Ph.D.
P.E. Hudson, Esq., Dep't of the Navy, Office of General Counsel