SCS Engineers is pleased to welcome Christopher (Chris) Monahan as our new Vice President and General Counsel. With a Professional Engineering background, a Juris Doctor, and an LL.M. in Business Law, Chris brings a rare combination of technical, legal, and business expertise to our leadership team. He is based at our Long Beach, CA headquarters.
“Chris Monahan’s broad and multidisciplinary legal background spans construction, engineering, claims and litigation, M&A, renewable energy, labor and employment law, environmental compliance, real estate, international law, intellectual property, and technology, making him an ideal fit with our vision to be the leading provider of environmental solutions – delivering lasting outcomes for our clients and employee-owners,” says SCS President Curtis Jang.
Chris joins SCS with deep leadership experience across the renewable energy and engineering sectors. He has led legal departments and overseen enterprise risk management, compliance, contracts, litigation, IRA tax strategy, and SEC filings for organizations involved in solar and clean‑energy development. His background also includes managing large, multi-disciplinary legal teams and supporting complex projects across multiple jurisdictions.
When asked about joining SCS Engineers, Chris says, “It’s an honor to join SCS Engineers. I’m excited to contribute to an organization that protects our planet with integrity and purpose. The company’s vision, its focus on environmental solutions, its reputation for technical excellence and innovation, and its employee-owned culture position the company to do remarkable things.”
In addition to his professional accomplishments, Chris enjoys surfing, triathlons, and spending time with his family. He shared that his family is very enthusiastic about this new chapter and looks forward to becoming part of the SCS Engineers family—both personally and professionally.
Chris holds an LL.M in Business Law from the University of Sydney, a Juris Doctor from Loyola Law School, an MS in Civil Engineering from UCLA, Bachelor’s degrees in Engineering (Cal State Long Beach) and Accounting (Pepperdine), and graduate certificates in Enterprise Risk Management and Construction Management from UCLA. He is licensed as a California attorney, a U.S. Patent Attorney, a Solicitor in Australia (inactive), and a Professional Civil Engineer in California.
Please join us in welcoming Chris Monahan to SCS Engineers. We are enthusiastic about the depth of his experience, leadership, and strategic insight, and look forward to his contributions to our leadership team.
Join SCS Engineers at the Environmental Industry Summit (EIS) XXIV, April 1–3, 2026, in Coronado, San Diego County. Environmental Business International (EBI) hosts the Summit each year, bringing the environmental industry together to strengthen its professional community.
This year’s event will convene 150+ executives for a multiple day program focused on business strategy, market trends, and leadership. The Summit also features the annual EBJ & CCBJ Business Achievement Awards banquet, celebrating high performance and innovation across the industry.
SCS Engineers is proud to to serve as a sponsor of Environmental Industry Summit (EIS) XXIV and to proudly have earned both the Climate Change Business Journal Achievement Award for Innovation and the Environmental Business Journal Project Award at EIS XXIV. See you there!
Join SCS Engineers at EEI National Accounts Spring Conference, taking place April 12–15, 2026, in Phoenix. EEI’s National Accounts Spring Conference brings together national corporate energy users and key industry stakeholders to build relationships, conduct business, and address today’s most pressing energy challenges.
The workshop offers opportunities to meet face-to-face with electric companies, corporate customers, technology providers, and industry suppliers to support customer energy management needs. Attendees will also share best practices and benchmarking insights with peers, explore the latest industry trends through keynote sessions and breakouts, and engage in interactive roundtable discussions focused on real-world solutions. Register now!
Join SCS Engineers at the AEE World Energy Conference & Expo, taking place September 16–18, 2026, in Orlando, FL. The AEE World Energy Conference & Expo is the flagship global event for professionals advancing energy efficiency, decarbonization, and sustainable energy systems. Each year, leaders from industry, government, utilities, and organizations come together to share practical insights, examine real-world case studies, and explore technologies shaping the future of energy.
More than a traditional conference, AEE World serves as a working platform, designed to help professionals move from ideas to implementation while building trusted global connections that extend beyond the event. Focused on accelerating global energy solutions, the conference highlights proven approaches and emerging strategies across regions, sectors, and disciplines.
SCS Engineers will be attending the 2026 Baird Global Industrial Conference. This event is taking place November 10–12, 2026, at The Ritz-Carlton Chicago in Chicago.
This premier, invitation-only conference brings together senior executives from more than 280 leading public and private companies representing mid- to large-cap organizations across the industrial sector. The event offers a unique forum for strategic conversations, market insights, and high-level networking with investors and industry leaders.
In addition to the in-person conference, Baird is hosting a virtual private company event (dates to be announced). Attendees will have access to webcasted company presentations and one-on-one meetings with investors and senior management. Participating companies span a wide range of sectors, including industrial equipment, aerospace and defense, chemicals, energy technology, manufacturing, transportation, and logistics.
Join SCS Engineers at the ACS Spring Meeting 2026. Taking place March 22–26, 2026, in Atlanta at the Georgia World Congress Center, with both in-person and virtual attendance options available.
Hosted by the American Chemical Society, ACS Spring Meeting brings together scientists, researchers, and industry professionals to collaborate and explore breakthrough science shaping the future of chemistry. The conference offers a dynamic mix of technical programming, career-building sessions, and networking opportunities designed to expand knowledge and invigorate career paths—whether attending onsite or online.
With flexible participation options, ACS Spring 2026 provides a rewarding experience for professionals looking to stay at the forefront of chemical science and its real-world applications. Register today!
As we prepare for the upcoming Air & Waste Management Association (AWMA) conference, we’re pleased to share that our team will be presenting on a topic that continues to grow in importance across the industrial and technology sectors: environmental permitting challenges for data center development.
The following SCS Team Members will lead this session:
John Tsun, Project Director, National Practice Lead for Industrial CAA
David Greene, Project Director
Sean Gordon, Project Manager
Data centers are critical infrastructure supporting today’s digital economy, yet their development often involves a complex and evolving regulatory landscape. Key considerations include air permitting for backup generators, stormwater and wastewater management requirements, and compliance with local land use and noise ordinances. Addressing these issues early—and in coordination with regulators and project stakeholders—can significantly reduce permitting risk and schedule impacts.
Our AWMA presentation will focus on practical, real-world considerations for navigating these challenges, including how early planning, thoughtful permit strategy, and proactive agency engagement can help streamline approvals and manage compliance risk. We’ll also discuss emerging trends and common permitting issues that data center developers and consultants are encountering across jurisdictions.
Following the conference, we’ll share a post-conference blog highlighting key takeaways, emerging trends, and insights from the discussion.
SCS Engineers periodically prepares SCS Technical Bulletins and alerts to highlight items of interest to our clients.
SCS Engineers periodically prepares SCS Technical Bulletins – short, clear summaries of rules, plans, standards, and advice. On January 2, 2026, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it will no longer consider the health-related monetary benefits of reducing air pollution when developing regulations. See 40 CFR Part 60 [EPA-HQ-OAR-2024-0419; FRL-11542-01-OAR], RIN 2060-AW21, New Source Performance Standards Review for Stationary Combustion Turbines and Stationary Gas Turbines.
Just because the EPA has de-emphasized health benefits in its cost-effectiveness analyses of pollution control options does not mean that facilities would be protected from liability for any health impacts they cause. In fact, there is risk that if a facility employs a less stringent level of pollution control as a result of EPA’s new policy, that choice, albeit allowed by the linked NSPS regulation, could increase the potential for more health impact lawsuits to be filed as well as to increase the facility’s liability because they chose to utilize a control technology that did not adequately reduce health impacts.
Navigating the Changing Regulatory Landscape: What the New ‘No Health Costs’ Approach Means for Industrial Clients
In our ever-evolving regulatory environment, staying ahead of policy changes is key to maintaining both compliance and strategic foresight. Recently, the EPA’s shift in its regulatory stance—specifically the decision not to factor health costs into pollution controls—has raised important considerations for the industrial sector.
From a practical perspective, this shift may influence how future air regulations—particularly those related to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone—are developed and communicated. While public health considerations remain part of the regulatory discussion, the absence of quantified health benefits in economic analyses could change how the overall impacts of new rules are presented. For regulated entities, this underscores the importance of staying engaged with both regulatory agencies and surrounding communities, and continuing to demonstrate a commitment to sound environmental stewardship as policy approaches evolve.
Understanding the Policy Shift
Traditionally, many environmental regulations have included an assessment of health-related costs and benefits. By taking those out of the equation, the EPA is essentially focusing on the economic and technical sides of compliance without formally weighing public health impacts. For industrial clients, this can translate into changes in how permitting and compliance standards are framed.
Implications for Compliance and Strategy
From a practical standpoint, this shift could mean that certain emissions controls or pollution abatement measures are viewed through a more cost-efficiency lens rather than a health-impact lens. For some facilities, that might reduce the immediate burden of justifying certain health-based mitigation steps. For others, it could lead to a re-examination of how to align with both federal requirements and community expectations.
Staying Proactive and Engaged
Even as the regulatory focus shifts, our advice to clients remains the same: stay proactive. Engaging early with regulatory agencies, understanding the broader community context, and maintaining a commitment to sustainable practices will help ensure that your projects not only meet the letter of the law but also foster long-term trust and reliability with your stakeholders.
Community Implications and Local Engagement
It’s also worth noting that while this regulatory shift focuses less on health costs, the well-being of the local community remains a priority. Industries will still need to engage with residents and local stakeholders to address concerns and demonstrate that, even in a changing regulatory landscape, maintaining trust and environmental responsibility remains key.
Potential Implications for Litigation and Facility-Level Risk
While the recent policy shift does not, by itself, create new regulatory requirements, it may have secondary implications for how air quality impacts are evaluated and challenged outside the federal rulemaking process. By placing less emphasis on monetizing public health benefits in regulatory analyses, future EPA rules may yield a narrower administrative record for health-based justifications, even where health impacts remain an underlying consideration.
In this context, challenges related to air quality impacts may increasingly occur at the facility or permit level, rather than through direct challenges to federal regulations. State agencies, local governments, community organizations, and other stakeholders may rely on state statutes, permitting programs, nuisance claims, or environmental justice frameworks to raise concerns regarding localized or cumulative impacts.
For facility owners and operators, this underscores the importance of maintaining robust, defensible compliance programs. Adherence to permit conditions remains essential, but facilities may also benefit from enhanced documentation of operational controls, emissions performance, monitoring data, and responsiveness to community or regulator inquiries. In some cases, voluntary risk-management measures or early engagement during permitting and modification processes may help reduce the likelihood that disputes will escalate into enforcement actions or litigation.
Technical Takeaway for Facility Owners
As federal rulemaking places less emphasis on quantified health benefits, risk management increasingly shifts to the facility level. Facility owners should assume that:
Compliance with permit limits remains necessary but may not be sufficient to deter challenges.
Facility-specific emissions data, monitoring records, and operational documentation will play a larger role in defending permits and responding to third-party claims.
Early coordination during permitting, modifications, and renewals—particularly for PM₂.₅ and ozone-related sources—can reduce downstream legal and community-driven risk.
If you’d like to understand your facilities risk or further investigate O&M program assessment, please get in touch with our experts at SCS Engineers.
Meet our Author:John Tsun, National Practice Leader – Industrial Clean Air Act Services, SCS Engineers.
Advancing solutions to the environmental challenges of data centers
Already numbering over 5000 and growing rapidly, US data centers house vast concentrations of networked computer servers supporting data science, artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, and our overall use of the internet. Major environmental concerns include direct emissions of air pollutants from routine and emergency power generation, cooling systems, noise, increased water use, zoning issues, waste management, energy transmission, and new power plant construction. States and local agencies seek to reduce local impacts and resolve land-use conflicts while still promoting economic development.
The Dulles Technology Corridor or “Data Center Alley” in northern Virginia is one of the world’s leading data center markets, with over 25 million square feet of data center operations that handle an estimated 70% of the world’s internet traffic — and is the perfect place to hold our first conference on this emerging topic.
Discover technical pathways to more efficient, lower-impact data centers.
The technical program will focus on efforts to reduce adverse environmental and public health impacts of data centers and improve data center sustainability and energy efficiency. Environmental professionals, consultants, local and state managers, and researchers should attend to discover new solutions to reduce the environmental burden of this challenging industry.
SCS Engineers Presents Navigating Environmental Permitting Challenges for Data Center Development
Data center projects face a range of environmental permitting challenges that demand early coordination among developers, consultants, and regulatory agencies. Key factors include air permits for backup generators, stormwater and wastewater management, and compliance with local land use and noise requirements. Through proactive planning and ongoing engagement with regulators, project teams can deliver timely, compliant, and environmentally responsible results. Presenters include, John Tsun, David Greene, and Sean Gordon.
SCS Engineers presents an overview of a live webinar titled “Phased by Design: Aligning Data, Dollars, and Decisions in Planning,” which focuses on a case study from the City of High Point, North Carolina. The webinar demonstrates how a phased, financially grounded procurement process can lead to more targeted, practical, and cost-effective outcomes in waste management planning, with broader applications for municipalities and utilities.
Case Study and Key Speakers
The City of High Point adopted a phased approach, sequencing its planning process first to diagnose financial and operational challenges, which then inform subsequent decisions, resulting in a more focused scope and budget. This contrasts with traditional broad RFPs, which often yield generic, overly comprehensive proposals.
The webinar features Melinda King, Assistant Public Works Director of High Point, NC, who has extensive experience managing public works divisions, including landfill and environmental services. Melinda led the RFP effort in the case study. Vita Quinn, a national expert on utility finance and rate studies at SCS, also presents, sharing expertise on financial sustainability solutions and utility rate design across various services, including solid waste and recycling.
Importance of the Phased Approach
Procurement teams often create RFPs under time pressure, without close collaboration with the utility or the department that needs the project. This can lead consultants to respond to poorly defined scopes, resulting in expensive and broad plans that are difficult to implement. A phased approach begins with procurement and realistic expectations, enabling more precise consultant bids, sharper solutions, and easier plan execution.
Target Audience and Applicability
While the case study centers on solid waste management, the phased procurement process applies to any business, municipality, utility, or public works department seeking improved planning and procurement outcomes.
Saving Time and Money on Waste Industry and Utility RFPs
Attendees will learn how to:
Consider financial and operational drivers before issuing an initial RFP to ensure informed procurement rather than speculative efforts.
Use an early feasibility analysis phase to scope risks and reduce cost exposure while enhancing bidder differentiation.
Design phased implementations, so each step logically builds on the previous, refining scope and budget accordingly.
Tailor procurement to reduce planning costs and clarify implementation pathways.
Takeaways and Additional Information
Participants will gain a repeatable procurement framework that integrates financial analysis, operational feasibility, and long-term strategy into a phased project roadmap. They will also better understand how to structure scopes that protect budgets while attracting innovative consultant solutions.
The webinar encourages questions during and after the session and offers certificates of attendance on request for the live session. For those unable to attend live, a recording is available upon RSVP.
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