The Nickel Report

In 2025, four states—California, Massachusetts, New York, and Washington—proposed fashion accountability bills. These bills would require high-earning entities in the fashion industry to conduct extensive supply chain due diligence, and to monitor and report greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, water use, and chemical management.

During its monthly meeting on February 26, 2026, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) approved staff’s proposed initial implementing regulations for California’s climate emissions disclosure and financial risk reporting laws enacted in 2023, SB 253 and SB 261. The rulemaking package approved by the Board establishes CARB’s administration and implementation fee program and finalizes key regulatory definitions for fee assessment and program applicability.

On February 6, 2026, the US Environmental Protection Agency issued a press release highlighting significant actions addressing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) taken during the first year of the new administration and signaling continued expansion of efforts affecting regulated entities. The announcement reiterates EPA’s continued commitment to making PFAS a top priority across its programs. The release also summarizes EPA’s PFAS testing approach and methods for identifying and measuring PFAS in various environmental media, the results of which will guide the agency’s future actions. Overall, EPA expects to expand research and testing, increase community engagement, and strengthen enforcement actions to address PFAS contamination.

A recent federal court decision determined that documents created by a criminal defendant using AI and subsequently shared with legal counsel were not shielded by attorney-client privilege or the work product doctrine. In USA v. Heppner, Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York compelled the disclosure of 31 documents created with Anthropic’s Claude. This order was issued despite the defendant including information from counsel in the AI tool’s input and later providing the resulting outputs to his attorneys. The ruling offers early judicial perspective on privilege concerns involving AI-generated materials, an area where case law remains sparse.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced it is “exercising its enforcement discretion to no longer pursue criminal charges . . . on allegations of tampering with onboard diagnostic devices in motor vehicles” under the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act). According to DOJ, this exercise of discretion not to criminally prosecute is based on “sound enforcement principles, efficient use of government resources[,] and avoiding overcriminalization of federal environmental law.” DOJ’s announcement is an about-face from years of criminal prosecutions for identical conduct, including an increase of these prosecutions under the first Trump administration. As a result of this new policy, DOJ is now dismissing existing CAA criminal tampering cases—more than a dozen prosecutions thus far—and the decision may impact some 20 or more ongoing investigations. DOJ stated in its announcement that it intends to continue to pursue civil enforcement for tampering cases under the Act in partnership with EPA.

Since its first day in office, the current administration has taken steps to curtail the development of renewable energy, and wind energy in particular. Just over a year in, the administration’s intentions do not seem to have changed, but there are signs that legal challenges are affecting implementation of its policies toward renewable energy development.

On February 17, 2026, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a final rule adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Bombardier Inc. airplanes. This new AD requires locking features to be installed on applicable network interfaces to prevent unauthorized network access. FAA seeks 45-day public comment on any written data, views, or arguments associated with this final rule, ending on April 3, 2026.

Among the changes, the proposed rule would amend Hazardous Materials Regulations to treat sodium ion batteries in a manner similar to the way lithium ion batteries are regulated.

On February 10, 2026, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to amend the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR) to adopt certain international regulations and standards concerning proper shipping names, hazard classes, packing groups, special provisions, packaging authorizations, air transport quality limitations, and vessel stowage requirements. Notably, in this NPRM, PHMSA recognizes the increased use of sodium ion batteries and proposes various changes to regulate them in the same manner as lithium ion batteries.

Perhaps the biggest EPR news to date is the February 6, 2026 decision by the US District Court for the District of Oregon granting the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors Inc. (NAW) a preliminary injunction to block enforcement of Oregon’s Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act (RMA) pending a decision on the merits.^[1] The Oregon litigation has the potential to affect the scope of EPR programs across the country, potentially extending beyond packaging to other products. In the meantime, product manufacturers and retailers must continue to wrestle with how best to manage EPR compliance and related costs and business impacts.

On February 9, 2026, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) published a notice of a public meeting to provide updates on and insights into ongoing activities regarding vehicle automation across NHTSA. The meeting will be held in person and is scheduled to take place all day on March 10, 2026.