In Valley Forge Insurance Company v. Hartford Iron & Metal, Inc., 2017 WL 1361308 (N.D. Ind. 2017), Magistrate Judge Susan Collins held that emails between Hartford and the environmental consultants hired by its attorney were not protected by the attorney-client privilege, and enjoyed only limited protection by the work product privilege.

New for 2017: take a look at this video message from section chair Mike Reeder and get an idea of what you can expect from the Environmental Law Section this year.

The order directs executive agencies to “review existing regulations that potentially burden the development or use of domestically produced energy resources and appropriately suspend, revise, or rescind those that unduly burden the development of domestic energy resources beyond the degree necessary to protect the public interest or otherwise comply with law.”

With Justice Rucker’s upcoming retirement, public interviews for his replacement on the Indiana Supreme Court took place on March 21 and 22.

Keep up with the happenings: take a look at this quarter's message from Environmental Law Section Chair, Mike Reeder.

Originally passed by the General Assembly in 2016 but vetoed by then-Governor Pence, House Enrolled Act (HEA) 1082 called for a process where new IDEM rules determined to be more restrictive than federal standards would not become effective until the end of the next legislative session, providing lawmakers the chance to review those proposed stricter rules. In February 2017, both the House (65-29) and the Senate (49-1) voted to override Governor Pence’s 2016 veto.

This year’s theme is “Protecting the Urban Environment” and has lots of hot-button topics, from surface lead issues in East Chicago to Evansville air issue and developments in Brownfield redevelopment.

On October 3, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published proposed revisions to its greenhouse gas (GHG) permitting program in response to decisions issued in 2014 and 2015 by the U.S. Supreme Court and U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

In February of last year, The National Law Review reported on the Sixth Circuit’s split-panel holding that it had jurisdiction to review challenges to the validity of the “Clean Water Rule” (which clarifies the term “waters of the United States” in the Clean Water Act). Recently, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in National Association of Manufacturers v. Department of Defense.

Bruno Pigott has been appointed by Governor-elect Eric Holcomb to serve as Commissioner of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.