The vast majority of federal environmental civil penalty cases are resolved through negotiations with the government. Starting in 1984, EPA established agencywide policies and procedures for calculating the amount of economic benefit a corporation, municipality, or nonprofit entity may obtain due to alleged noncompliance with legally-binding pollution control requirements, and set monetary values that can be included in penalty assessments to account for the “gravity” component of civil penalties. EPA refers cases that are difficult to resolve to the Department of Justice for more in-depth treatment and possible adjudication.

The 90-minute webinar is designed to:

• Discuss practical advice for negotiating settlements of environmental civil penalty cases.
• Identify generic problems that often arise in civil penalty negotiations.
• Describe EPA’s computer models for calculating the amount of economic benefit and an entity’s ability-to-pay both civil penalties and injunctive relief.
• Analyze the need of targeted entities in civil penalty disputes to obtain sound analyses of the least-cost engineering design, equipment, and operations and maintenance expenditures necessary for compliance and to develop fact-based analyses of compliance problems.
• Provide strategic advice.

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• Quality. Count on it. Nothing is canned.
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In addition, you’ll receive:

• Personal attention. Once you’ve registered, send your questions in advance to annebrown@bna.com and they’ll be included in the program. You’ll also have a chance to ask your questions during the Webinar.
• Follow-up materials. You need no materials upfront to follow along to our live conference. But BNA always issues a follow-up e-mail with contact information for our speakers as well as other materials related to the topic.
• CLE credits will be available for this EHS Webinar. 

Robert H. Fuhrman, Seneca Economics and Environment, LLC

Robert H. Fuhrman is principal and founder of Seneca Economics and Environment, LLC, a consulting firm located in Germantown, Md. He has worked on environmental civil penalty cases for over 25 years and has been involved in over 200 engagements in which he provided economic benefit and/or ability-to-pay analyses. Robert has a high level of expertise on Environmental Protection Agency civil enforcement matters, including EPA’s medium-specific civil penalty settlement policies and various computer models used by the agency in calculating the economic benefit of noncompliance, entities’ and individual’s ability-to-pay civil penalties, and valuation of supplemental environmental projects. He has provided expert testimony on relevant matters in federal district courts, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, as well as in hearings before EPA administrative law judges. He also has provided deposition testimony over twenty-five times. From 1977 to 1983, Robert was employed as an economist at EPA in its Washington, D.C. headquarters where he served as a member of EPA’s energy policy staff, and acting chief of the Industrial Analysis Branch of the Economic Analysis Division. He was, at different times, principal and director at two nationally-based economic, financial, and management consulting firms, Putnam Hayes & Bartlett Inc., and The Brattle Group Inc. In 2002, he founded Seneca Economics and Environment, LLC, where he continues his consulting practice. Robert has published more than 30 articles and has contributed to EPA public dockets created to accept public comments on specific issues related to the use of economic and financial analysis in establishing civil penalties.