Stranger Things In The RCRA Hazardous Waste Regulations

Principal Aaron Goldberg (Austin and Washington, DC) authored an article, “Stranger Things in the RCRA Hazardous Waste Regulations,” for the Spring 2026 edition of the American Bar Association's Natural Resources & Environment publication.

Federal judges have variously described the hazardous waste regulatory program under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), 42 U.S.C. § 6901, et seq., as Cloud Cuckoo Land, Alice in Wonderland, a topsy-turvy universe, and a mind-numbing journey. See, e.g., American Petroleum Institute v. EPA, 862 F.3d 50, 65 (D.C. Cir. 2017), decision modified on reh’g, 883 F.3d 918 (D.C. Cir. 2018) (“topsy-turvy universe”). One judge went so far as to declare that “[t]he people who wrote [the rules] ought to go to jail.” Judge Critical of Both Parties in Marine Shale Case, Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News, Sept. 7, 1994, at 20.