Margaret Holden - Sive Paget Riesel

Meg’s practice focuses on environmental and land use litigation, regulatory compliance counseling, renewable energy development, and environmental due diligence of development projects.

Meg has challenged and defended projects under the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act and represented potentially responsible parties in CERCLA proceedings. She has experience with matters arising under a variety of federal environmental laws, including the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act. Meg also has experience advising clients on permitting and environmental review for offshore wind projects.

Prior to joining the firm in 2018, Meg was an Assistant Corporation Counsel in the Environmental Law Division of the New York City Law Department. During her time at the City of New York, she represented the City and its agencies in federal and state environmental litigation, and assisted City agencies with environmental regulatory compliance. Before working for the City, Meg clerked on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Meg is a graduate of Harvard Law School, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Environmental Law Review and was a student attorney for the Emmett Environmental Law & Policy Clinic. Before law school, Meg worked for an environmental nonprofit in New Delhi, India.

“Environmental Law: Developments in the Law of SEQRA, ” Co-author

For: 71 Syracuse L. Rev.

forthcoming 2020

“Beyond PFAS 101: Understanding Technical Approaches in PFAS Liability Assessment”

October 2020

Sackett v. EPA

For: Harvard Environmental Law Review

2013

NEPA Review of Pipeline Project Upheld by D.C. Circuit – With Asterisk

On June 4, the D.C. Circuit issued a decision in Birckhead, et al. v. FERC, in which the petitioners challenged the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (“FERC”) environmental review of a natural gas pipeline project.<...

NY’s Governor Cuomo Signs Law Introducing One-Stop Shop for Renewable Energy Project Permitting

On April 3, 2020, with the passage of the Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth and Community Benefit Act, New York adopted sweeping changes to the siting of large-scale renewable energy projects.[1] The new law will streamline and accelerate the permitting and construction of renewable energy projects, and ...

Nationwide Permit for Pipelines and Utility Projects Vacated on ESA Grounds

On April 15, 2020, the United States District Court for the District of Montana issued a decision in Northern Plains Resource Council v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, vacating Nationwide Permit (“NWP”) 12, a general permit issued by the ...

Wartime Regulation Does Not Render Government an Operator Under CERCLA, Third Circuit Rules

On May 4, 2020, the Third Circuit issued a decision in PPG Industries v. United States, a case which considered whether the government’s involvement at a chromium processing plant during World War II made ...

Court Narrows Scope of NWP 12 Ruling; Corps Appeals to Ninth Circuit

Last month, we wrote about a recent decision from the US District Court for the District of Montana vacating Nationwide Permit (“NWP”) 12, the general permit issued by the Army Corps of Engineers (“Corps”) for pipelines and other utility projects. On May 11, the court ...

Public Service Commission Issues Two Orders in Furtherance of Renewable Energy Growth

On May 14, 2020 the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) issued two orders designed to further State goals of rapidly expanding renewable energy development. One, issued in Case No. 20-E-0197, is a preliminary ...

Council on Environmental Quality’s New NEPA Regulations: An Analysis

On September 14, 2020, the Council on Environmental Quality’s (“CEQ”) Final Rule overhauling its regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) became effective. The Final Rule represents the first comprehensive revision of the NEPA regulations since their initial issuance in 1978, and introduces process-based and substantive changes to the NEPA regulations, ...

Margaret
Holden

Associate