Disclaimer

Information, not advice

The Service provides general information about environmental, land-use, permitting, economic development and related developments. It is not legal, engineering, environmental consulting, tax, accounting, financial, investment or other professional advice, and it is not a substitute for advice from a qualified professional about your specific circumstances.

Using the Service does not create an attorney–client or other professional relationship. Do not send confidential information about a matter until a lawyer has confirmed in writing that they can act for you.

General summaries; not every rule or program

Briefings, the rulebooks, the compliance calendars and the funding and incentives pages are general, simplified summaries of selected federal, state, regional and local environmental, land-use and economic development rules, programs and developments. They are not complete statements of the law and do not list every regulation, permit, approval, program or deadline that may apply to a project. County and municipal requirements, conditions specific to a site, and the terms of a project’s own permits may also apply.

How content is prepared; accuracy and timeliness

Content is prepared from public sources, some of it drafted with the help of an artificial intelligence model, and checked by a person against official sources before publication. Each entry shows when it was last checked. Law, programs and agency practice change, sources can be wrong or incomplete, and errors are possible. Dates marked “reported” or “estimated” are not confirmed in an official text, and a funding program marked “Being re-checked” has had a source change since it was last confirmed. Content speaks only as of the date shown, and we have no duty to update it or to tell you when something it describes changes.

Funding, tax and financial information

Funding and incentive entries describe public grant, loan, tax credit, tax abatement and financing programs as their sources stated them on the date shown. Amounts, eligibility, deadlines and status change, often between rounds, and most awards are discretionary. Nothing here is tax, accounting, investment or financial advice; an offer, solicitation or recommendation to buy any security or fund interest, including Opportunity Zone funds; or a statement that you or a project qualify. Confirm with the program agency and your own tax and financial advisers before relying on any figure or deadline.

Map screening is not a site assessment

Screening compares a location with public map layers that can be out of date, coarse or wrong. A flag means a rule may apply; a clear result does not mean it does not. Screening is not a Phase I environmental site assessment, does not satisfy the federal “all appropriate inquiries” standard, and is not a delineation, survey, jurisdictional determination or the judgment of a licensed site remediation professional, engineer or surveyor.

Ratings and analysis are opinions

Impact ratings, severity levels and political analysis are our judgments based on public information. They are not predictions of outcome and not recommendations.

Lawyer referrals

We make a referral only at your request and with your consent. A referral is our recommendation of a law firm we believe is suited to the matter you describe, based on that description and on the firm’s practice. It is not a guarantee of the firm’s availability, competence or results: the firm decides whether to act for you after its own conflict check, provides any services under its own engagement terms, and is responsible for them; we do not supervise its work; and you are free to choose any lawyer.

A firm we recommend may be affiliated with EnvironmentalShortcut’s owners. If it is, we will tell you and name the firm by email before your request is passed on; the request goes to that firm only if you agree, and you can ask us to recommend a different firm instead.

Law firms do not pay us for referrals, and whether a firm subscribes to EnvironmentalShortcut plays no part in which firm we recommend.

Your responsibility

Confirm any requirement, date or figure with the official source, the responsible agency or a qualified professional before relying on it. You are responsible for your own decisions and for meeting your obligations.