On September 23, 2008, the Western Climate Initiative (“WCI”) released its Design Recommendations for the WCI Regional Cap-and-Trade Program (the “Program”) ...
Concerns over global climate change have sparked a series of legislative and policy responses on the provincial, federal, regional, and international levels. The challenge of complying with climate change policy is that different governments have invoked a number of different policy tools to respond and adapt ...
On May 27, 2008, Line Beauchamp, Minister of Sustainable Development, Environment and Parks, announced an envelope of $60 million under the Assistance program to reduce or avoid greenhouse gas emissions by implementation of intermodal projects in freight transportation, to fund new projects aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions ...
On May 9, 2008, the Ministère du Développement durable, de l’Environnement et des Parcs (MDDEP) presented its new pricing system for applications for environmental authorizations. The Order-in-Council provides for a rate grid based on the nature of the work covered by the application for authorization. The base rate is $500, unless another rate is stipulated in the rate grid ...
On April 29, 2008, the Minister of Sustainable Development, Environment and Parks, Line Beauchamp, announced the adoption of new measures to improve water quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. An amount of $16.4 million has been allocated to enable agricultural operations to intensify their actions favouring the preservation and improvement of water quality ...
Prohibition of Certain Toxic Substances Regulations 2008 - Environment Canada Consultation DocumentEnvironment Canada hold consultations in January 2008 on modifications to the Prohibition of Certain Toxic Substances Regulations, 2005 that would prohibit the manufacture, use, sale, offer for sale and importation of certain toxic substances. The modified regulations would replace the Prohibition of Certain Toxic Substances Regulations, 2005 ...
In the autumn of 2007, the rules in the Environmental Code on liability for environmental damage in the form of pollution were made more stringent. The changes were due to the EC directive on environmental liability (1). The liability of businesses operators and property owners has thus become more extensive. Amendments have, inter alia, been made to chapter 10 of the Environmental Code ...
CMS recently released new regulations intended to curb the ability of a physician to earn a profit on either the technical component (TC) or professional component (PC) of tests ordered by the physician, but performed by another party. The regulation is effective January 1, 2008 and applies to all Medicare-covered diagnostic tests including imaging and anatomic pathology, but excluding clinical laboratory tests ...
Savings and expected recoveries of $43 billion were reported by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (OIG) in its Semiannual Report to Congress on December 14, 2007, for fiscal year 2007 (October 2006 – September 2007). This represents $2.18 billion in investigative recoveries, $1 ...
On Nov. 20, 2007, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officially published “Appendix A” of the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) in the Federal Register. This comes as part of the DHS’s ongoing efforts to ensure the adequate security of chemical facilities in the United States. Appendix A, which is an addendum to 6 C.F.R. § 27, identifies over 300 chemicals perceived by the DHS to create a significant threat to human life or health if mishandled ...
On certified questions from the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire, the New Hampshire Supreme Court has decided that New Hampshire will allocate liability for long-tail environmental claims pro rata by years and limits among triggered policies. See EnergyNorth Natural Gas, Inc. v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s, No. 2006-745 (N.H. Oct. 18, 2007). BackgroundEnergyNorth Natural Gas, Inc ...
The Environmental Liability Directive aims to establish a common framework of environmental liability across the EU to prevent and remedy certain types of environmental damage. The framework is based on the “polluter pays principle”. The implementation date for member states was 30 April 2007. Ireland has not complied with this transposition date and will not have transposed it as a current estimate until early 2008 ...
This paper will address the varying requirements for fair market value in transactions involving physicians and hospitals and other health care providers. The paper will first examine the Stark law and how and when transactions may satisfy Stark’s requirements for fair market value. Second, the use of fair market value for compliance with the federal Anti-Kickback statute will be addressed ...
In the past few years China has introduced significant regulatory changes in an effort to modernize its pharmaceutical industry and bring it in line with international standards. These include reorganizing the former State Drug Administration into the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA), thoroughly amending drug regulation and good manufacturing practice (GMP), enhancing intellectual property protection and changing drug import licensing ...
The purposes of this Health Care Alert are to: 1) summarize recently proposed federal regulations which will require physician disclosure of ownership interests in hospitals to patients; 2) remind health care providers of existing Texas laws requiring disclosure of ownership interests and 3) suggest best practices for disclosure of ownership interests ...
On Capitol Hill, U.S. lawmakers are considering legislation that would authorize the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve generic versions of biological products. Representative Henry Waxman (D, CA), of “Hatch-Waxman” fame, has introduced the “Access to Life Saving Medicine Act” (H.R. 1038) to advance this change to U.S. law. In introducing the legislation, Rep ...
A reputation for counterfeiting, poor quality control, ever-changing and inconsistent application of regulations and the challenges of ensuring that development does not unduly prejudice the welfare of the general population - this description of China’s pharmaceutical industry is representative of much that is good, bad and challenging in China’s recent regulatory and economic development ...
Currently Romania’s market is characterized by the implementation of two seemingly opposite sets of actions, one aimed at ensuring Romania’s transition to the market economy and the achievement of economic growth, while the other is targeting the environmental protection through promotion of energy efficiency and use of renewable energy sources for electricity generation ...
On February 27 British Columbia issued “The BC Energy Plan: A Vision for Clean Energy Leadership” (Energy Plan 2007). The document is an extensive statement of provincial energy policy, and a roadmap for future government action in BC’s energy sector ...
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (“TCEQ”) is accepting comments on a draft guidance document that addresses air quality emissions and regulatory compliance for storage tanks using floating roofs ...
Dramatic changes in global climate have helped to wake up the consciousness of States on the significance of environmental issues in the last fourty years. Before then countries focused their energies on relentless industrial development with little or no attention to its impact on the environment. Scientific evidence has shown that unbridled development leads to loss of environmental capital, sometimes an irreversible phenomenon ...
Since the entry into force of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 on 1 January 2005, the general public and those in business seem, by and large, to be well aware of the potential benefits of the legislation. Information covering a plethora of topics has been accessed and used for a huge variety of purposes ...
