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Environmental
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June 19, 2013
EPA's Preemptive Alaska Study Spells Trouble For Mining Cos.
In a major departure from its standard development review process, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is conducting a hypothetical study examining the environmental consequences of mining activity in Alaska outside the context of a specific permit application, raising industry concerns that the agency will start striking down projects before they're actually proposed.
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June 19, 2013
Keystone’s Private Status Nixes Land Seizure, Owners Say
A group of Texas landowners said Tuesday that TransCanada Corp. lacks the power to initiate legal proceedings to seize private property to accommodate a segment of its 1,700-mile Keystone XL Pipeline, because the pipeline won’t have capacity available to the public.
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June 19, 2013
Health, Environmental Groups Sue EPA Over Smog Standards
A coalition of public health and environmental groups, including Sierra Club and the American Lung Association, hit the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency with a lawsuit in California federal court on Wednesday, asking the court to set a deadline for action on overdue standards for ozone pollution.
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June 19, 2013
Timber Co. Revives Debevoise Malpractice Claims
Green forestry company Candlewood Timber Group LLC on Monday revived legal malpractice claims accusing Debevoise & Plimpton LLC of allowing false testimony in a fee suit it launched against Candlewood after the company claimed the firm botched its contract fight with Pan American Energy LLC.
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June 19, 2013
$664M Hollywood Project Fights Off Enviro Jabs At Panel
Fending off accusations that an environmental impact report was deficient and fraudulently left out earthquake maps, a $664 million transit-oriented project that proposes to bring new hotel, residential, office and retail space to Los Angeles scored planning panel approval Tuesday evening.
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June 19, 2013
US Renews Obstruction Bid Against Ex-BP Exec
Federal prosecutors on Wednesday filed a superseding indictment in Louisiana federal court, seeking to shore up an allegation that BP PLC’s second-in-command during the Deepwater Horizon disaster knew of a congressional investigation he allegedly obstructed, a claim that was previously dismissed as too vague.
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June 19, 2013
EPA To Ease Petroleum Refinery Monitoring Requirements
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced on Wednesday that it has finalized significant revisions to emissions standards aimed at reducing cancer-causing airborne pollution from petroleum refineries, saying the amendments will reduce compliance costs and provide more flexible monitoring options.
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June 19, 2013
White House Action On Climate Change Imminent, Aide Says
President Barack Obama is expected to make good on his State of the Union promise to prioritize climate change through a series of policy initiatives that one top environmental policy aide said on Wednesday may roll out within the next month, according to multiple reports.
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June 19, 2013
Starr Can Deny SGS Chemical Spill Coverage, 5th Circ. Says
The Fifth Circuit on Tuesday upheld a ruling saying Starr Indemnity & Liability Co. did not have to cover SGS Petroleum Service Corp. in connection with a 2010 chemical spill because SGS waited too long to report the incident to the insurer, missing a key policy deadline.
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June 19, 2013
House Panel Approves Bill Easing Coal Ash Regulation
Legislation preventing federal environmental regulators from classifying toxic coal ash as a hazardous substance advanced to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives after winning support from a panel of lawmakers on Wednesday.
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June 19, 2013
Cape Wind Gets $200M Investment From Danish Pension Fund
The controversial Cape Wind offshore wind farm will receive a $200 million investment from Danish pension fund PensionDanmark in a push to close the deal and start construction on the Nantucket Sound-based project this year, PensionDanmark said Tuesday.
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June 19, 2013
New Water Regs Toothless On Oil, Gas Discharges, Pa. Told
Revisions to Pennsylvania’s water quality regulations don’t adequately address the discharge of oil and gas drilling wastewater into the state’s waterways, Democratic lawmakers and environmental groups told a state regulatory review board in a letter Tuesday.
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June 19, 2013
Disney Seeks Sanctions For 'Frivolous' $1B FCA Enviro Suit
Walt Disney Co. asked a California federal judge on Tuesday to sanction would-be whistleblowers and their attorneys for filing an allegedly frivolous $1 billion False Claims Act suit, arguing that it relitigates pending cases alleging Disney contaminated groundwater and adds to a long history of similar failed claims.
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June 18, 2013
Union Carbide Pushes 2nd Circ. To Kill Bhopal Suit
Union Carbide Corp. should not be found liable for pollution allegedly caused by an Indian subsidiary, its lawyers told the Second Circuit Tuesday, asking the appeals court to kill a lawsuit brought by residents of Bhopal, India.
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June 18, 2013
States, Cities, Enviros Postpone EPA Emissions Rule Suit
Twelve states and cities and three major environmental groups that threatened to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over failing to issue emissions regulations for power plants said Tuesday they will delay litigation until after the White House's upcoming climate change policy announcement.
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June 18, 2013
China Lacks Desire To Enforce Costly New Clean Air Regs
China's new air pollution rules call for unprecedented emissions restrictions that could prove costly for companies that operate in the country, but experts doubt the business-friendly government will be willing to enforce environmental measures that threaten to slow economic growth.
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June 18, 2013
DC Circ. Affirms Ban On Polar Bear Trophy Imports
The D.C. Circuit ruled Tuesday that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was well within its rights to block the importation of polar bear trophies after listing the bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.
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June 18, 2013
Coal Group's Brief Muddies Conservation Fund Suit, Feds Say
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Monday that a Pennsylvania coal industry group’s amicus brief in support of a mining company’s attempt to recover fees it had paid into a conservation program since declared unenforceable raised new arguments and should be ignored by the court.
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June 18, 2013
Judge Nixes Bid To Halt $400M Kinder Morgan Pipeline
A federal judge on Monday rejected a Native American tribe's bid to halt Kinder Morgan Inc.'s construction of a portion of the $400 million natural gas pipeline expansion in Pennsylvania and New Jersey over alleged desecration of sacred land, calling the tribe's injunction request speculative and legally deficient.
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June 18, 2013
US Sues Honda Over Excessive Small-Engine Emissions
The U.S. Department of Justice sued American Honda Motor Co. Inc. in Washington federal court Tuesday, accusing it of selling thousands of engines with improper air intakes, resulting in unlawfully excessive pollutant emissions.
Expert Analysis
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Hope Is Restored In Finally Modernizing TSCA
The recently introduced Chemical Safety Improvement Act bill offers a new and potentially politically viable framework for Toxic Substances Control Act reform. Though the stakes are high and outcome uncertain, the legislation is badly needed to restore public confidence in the federal chemical regulatory program, says Lynn Bergeson of Bergeson & Campbell PC.
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Challenges Still Ahead After Ill.'s New Fracking Bill
In light of the long-awaited hydraulic fracturing legislation now signed by Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, supporters of high-volume horizontal fracking who see the potential for enormous economic benefits are looking eagerly ahead to when permitted drilling operations can begin in the New Albany Shale reserve. But, even with enactment of the fracking legislation into law, significant challenges still lie ahead, say attorneys with Quarles & Brady LLP.
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A Template For Designing Mass Tort Settlement Structures
The work of the Gulf Coast Claims Facility in response to the Deep Water Horizon explosion and oil spill provides a modern paradigm for organizing and delivering financial relief to economic victims of extraordinary environmental disasters. Several aspects of the GCCF case, such as the application of payment algorithms, can be applied as a framework for other mass torts, say Thomas Vasquez and Ilan Guedji of Analysis Research Planning Corporation.
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Extra Layer Of Rules On Fracking On Federal, Tribal Lands
The latest U.S. Bureau of Land Management push for rules on hydraulic fracturing on federal and tribal lands would add another layer of regulation to oil and gas operators, with important changes on requirements such as cementing, construction chemical reporting, say attorneys with Latham & Watkins LLP.
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Top DOI Issues To Watch This Month
June brings dramatic changes at the top of the U.S. Department of the Interior. New hands will control the levers of power, and, as a result, the organization that controls one-fifth of the land area of the United States, 35,000 miles of coastline and 1.75 billion acres of offshore resources will alter how it operates, making one wonder what will happen next, says Steven Richardson of Wiley Rein LLP.
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Why Cost-Benefit Analysis In Enviro Law Is Superior
Although cost-benefit analysis in environmental rulemaking has its critics, it remains the best method as it can be an effective strategy for federal agencies to develop and implement environmental regulations that impose reasonable costs in exchange for more valuable benefits to society, say attorneys with Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP.
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A New Ballgame For Enviro Due Diligence In Texas
Recently, Gov. Perry signed into law a bill that expands the Texas Environmental, Health and Safety Audit Privilege Act, making its protections available to purchasers of equity or assets for the first time. This amendment finally closes a gap that had hindered broader use of an otherwise very effective tool for management of environmental liabilities, says Benjamin Cowan of Locke Lord LLP.
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How To Fight For Coverage In Solar Panel Defect Claims
A wave of large lawsuits could be coming against solar panel manufacturers, panel distributors and dealers and contractors — what can businesses expect when they turn to their insurance companies for help with these claims? Unfortunately, history shows that insurance companies will refuse to honor coverage and aggressively fight when policyholders are forced to sue, says Scott Turner of Anderson Kill & Olick PC.
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10 Strategies For A Special Verdict Form
One way to ensure that you have your appellate bases covered despite the frenzy of trial is to have an appellate specialist review your proposed verdict form for preservation issues. This modest investment at the trial stage can help ensure that any appellate arguments you may make will have a solid basis in the record, say Dawn Solowey and Rob Carty of Seyfarth Shaw LLP.
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Digging Into Issues Of Environmental Sampling
Environmental measurement has two important parts — collection of representative samples and analysis — but despite many excellent references that instruct how to do both, it is actually very difficult, so a third step, data interpretation, is also paramount, says Neil Shifrin of Berkeley Research Group LLC.