Holland & Hart LLP

With one of the largest environmental practices in the country, Holland & Hart provides proactive compliance and helps our clients develop sound environmental management practices. While our practice thrives in the resource-rich Mountain West, our environmental attorneys also work on sophisticated issues throughout the country, including the West Coast, the East Coast, the Midwest, and Alaska. Because of our in-depth knowledge of the issues, we have been and continue to be actively involved in regulatory and rulemaking issues.

Our environmental practice addresses our clients’ wide range of legal needs, such as environmental assessments, permitting, ongoing compliance advice, environmental audits, enforcement action defense, soil and groundwater remedial actions, legislative and rulemaking developments, and litigation when necessary.

Environmental Assessment and Permitting
For proposed projects, such as major new facilities, or in cases where a real estate or other business transaction becomes subject to environmental consideration, our assistance often begins with a comprehensive analysis of the applicable federal and state environmental permit and authorization requirements.

Our work in this area includes environmental assessments to help buyers or sellers of property assess the significance of potential environmental concerns at a specific site. We advise our clients on risk allocation mechanisms, appropriate indemnification, warranty, and other provisions in contracts and other documents relating to property transfer. We also handle environmental due diligence and the negotiation and drafting of environmental provisions of agreement documents for mergers, acquisitions, financing, and other transactions.

In helping our clients work through the various permitting processes, our efforts typically include preparing applications, meeting with agency representatives, helping the agency to address adverse public comments, and participating in public hearings. Of note is our extensive work and experience in Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) permit applications, including the permitting of very controversial sources and developing permit records that have prevailed on appeal; we are now engaged in developing some of the first greenhouse gas (GHG) control technology analyses required by new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) air permitting requirements. Often, our efforts also include analysis of environmental impact statement or environment assessment requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). This includes reviewing the draft and final documents and monitoring the data acquisition and analysis process to ensure legal adequacy. For ongoing operations, our assistance includes permit renewal, amendment, and transfer issues.

Compliance and Enforcement
We provide assistance with respect to continuing compliance with environmental laws. Our deep knowledge and experience in the underlying environmental programs as well as our understanding of our clients’ business operations make us a top-choice firm for environmental compliance issues. Our involvement in this area includes:

• reporting requirements and new permitting requirements for GHGs;
• aggregation requirements for oil and gas facilities potentially triggering federal air permitting requirements;
• production of water management and quality requirements;
• audits to determine the status of environmental compliance;
• formulation of measures and procedures necessary to attain and maintain compliance;
• advice regarding numerous specific air, water, solid and hazardous waste, wildlife protection, and other compliance issues that arise during the operating life of a facility;
• representation of clients in federal and state administrative and judicial enforcement actions;
• leadership on key environmental issues affecting the natural resource and other industries, giving us the credibility with regulators to develop compliance regulations that work for our clients, and negotiating conflicting interpretations of regulatory obligations; and
• working with clients both individually and in industry trade associations to formulate state and national environmental regulations and legislation that ensure our clients’ ongoing compliance with environmental requirements.

Remedial Actions and Redevelopment Projects
Pursuant to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and parallel state laws, private parties have been required to conduct remedial action at both active and inactive "contaminated" sites. We have advised clients with respect to both voluntary cleanup efforts with the goal of eliminating potential concerns before they result in federal or state enforcement actions, as well as clients with sites on the National Priorities List (NPL) under CERCLA. Our efforts with respect to these sites include:

• assisting in responding to CERCLA section 104(e) information requests;
• negotiating consent decrees or administrative orders regarding site study and cleanup;
• monitoring the CERCLA site evaluation and cleanup process for client sites; and
• defending federal cost recovery actions.

In addition to NPL sites, we have provided advice and representation with respect to a variety of formal and informal state-initiated cleanup efforts.

We have represented municipalities and private developers in connection with the redevelopment of brownfields.

• Private resort developments on former mine sites.
• Multi-use development on a former international airport site.
• Multi-use development on a former federal air base.
• Remediation and multi-use development of a former open pit mine and milling facility.
• Remediation and multi-use development of a World War II-era manufacturing facility.

Legislation and Rulemaking
Our legislative efforts on both the federal and state levels have included direct lobbying and drafting, as well as advice to clients' lobbyists regarding general strategy and specific language with respect to proposed legislation. On the federal level, Holland & Hart has been active with respect to specific developments affecting the mining industry in Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), CERCLA, and Clean Air Act legislation. Examples of efforts on the state level include drafting and lobbying on behalf of a variety of clients with respect to solid and hazardous waste, radiation control, water quality, and air quality statutes in several western states.

Because promulgation of rules and regulations implementing environmental statutes have an impact on our clients, our attorneys have been actively involved in rulemaking, including development of written comments and expert testimony and participating in public hearings. We often become involved in negotiations with agencies during the initial development of new regulations, prior to the stage of formal proposal. Examples of rulemaking efforts that we have participated in include:

• United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) greenhouse gas (GHG) regulatory requirements, including the tailoring rule and mandatory reporting requirements;
• natural resource damage regulations under CERCLA;
• the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) mill tailings regulations;
• federal PSD regulations, including regulation of fugitive dust and development of low permissible thresholds limiting energy projects in the West;
• national ambient air quality standards, including implementation rules and modeling requirements;
• intermittent and supplemental control strategies;
• good engineering practice stack heights;
• particulate matter size regulation;
• state air quality standards and procedures;
• state ground water quality regulatory programs and water quality classifications and standards;
• EPA rulemaking regarding federal National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) regulations;
• development of new Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) standards for natural resource industries;
• regulation of mining and mineral processing wastes under RCRA;
• EPA solid waste and reuse/recycling rules under RCRA;
• development of Coal Bed Methane (CBM) water quality regulations; and
• policies affecting protected species.

Holland & Hart's Statement of Commitment to Diversity
We are proud of our tradition of fostering and maintaining a work environment in which the diversity of each individual is valued and celebrated. We believe that the contributions of each individual are essential to our continued growth and to our ultimate goal of providing excellent quality legal services to our clients, with greater creativity and innovation. We are committed to taking full advantage of the rich backgrounds and abilities of our people and to promoting a greater diversity whenever and wherever possible.

Diversity Pledge
Holland & Hart is committed to promoting diversity by:

• Making every possible effort to recruit, hire, retain, and promote diverse persons at all levels of employment.
• Promoting greater sensitivity to the value of racial, ethnic and other forms of diversity, through diversity and sensitivity coaching or training for law firm members.
• Inviting to partnership diverse attorneys who meet the requisite criteria.

Diversity Initiatives
The following are additional examples of our commitment and efforts toward supporting and achieving diversity:

• We make a conscious effort to ensure that women and diverse attorneys are included as voting members of our committees of importance within the firm.
• We work closely with law school deans and placement directors in an effort to identify women and diverse law students who are interested in working at Holland & Hart.
• Holland & Hart offers medical and other benefits to partners of gay and lesbian employees on the same terms as it does to spouses of employees.
• We created an Indian Law Practice Group and actively recruited Native American law students and lateral hires.
• Each year we contribute to such scholarship funds as the Colorado Native American Indian Scholarship Fund, the Sam Cary Scholarship Endowment Fund, the Colorado Asian American Bar Scholarship Fund, the Colorado Hispanic Bar Scholarship Fund, and the Colorado Women's Bar Association Scholarship Fund.
• In partnership with the University of Idaho School of Law, we sponsor a "Law by Day, Jazz by Night" each year for undergraduate minority students who have an interest in law.
• We took a leadership role in organizing and supporting the Colorado Pledge Group's Minority First Year Law Student Summer Clerk Program. Through this program, law firms agreed to add at least one diverse first year law student to their summer clerk program.
• We were involved in the creation of the Cross-Professional Business Networking Group, where diverse attorneys in our community can meet and network with non-attorney professionals of color. We view this as a way to help diverse attorneys increase their business development possibilities.

For more information regarding Holland & Hart's commitment to diversity, please contact Peter Houtsma at (303) 295-8259.