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Environmental
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May 23, 2013
$2B Hospital Project Again Clears San Fran Panel
After nearly a year of legal and political stumbling over the environmental review of California Pacific Medical Center’s $2 billion hospital expansion plan, the project on Thursday won back expired approvals from the San Francisco planning commission.
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May 23, 2013
New Bill Saps States Of Chemical Safety Oversight Powers
Under the chemical safety reform bill unveiled Wednesday, states and cities would give up to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency nearly all of their ability to ban dangerous chemicals or require safety testing, and the little power they did preserve would be prone to challenges from chemical makers.
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May 23, 2013
Donziger Loses Bid To Delay $19B Chevron Case
A federal judge on Thursday refused to delay Chevron Corp.’s case against Steven Donziger, the lawyer accused of using fraud to win a $19 billion pollution judgment against the oil company, despite Donziger’s pleas for more time.
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May 23, 2013
Cooper Industries To Pay $340K In EPA Cleanup Suit
Cooper Industries LLC has agreed to cough up $340,000 in a deal with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to cover future cleanup costs at a Superfund site in West Virginia that was used to rebuild motors and transformers used in coal mining, according to Thursday court filings.
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May 23, 2013
States Want NRC To Expand Waste Storage Study's Scope
The states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Vermont on Wednesday urged the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to expand its court-ordered review of radioactive waste storage at nuclear power plants, including exploring the option of halting nuclear plant operations until the NRC devises an acceptable and permanent storage solution.
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May 23, 2013
Texas Appeals Court Upholds Keystone XL Land Grab
A Texas appeals court on Thursday removed a hurdle to TransCanada Corp’s planned Keystone XL Pipeline, rejecting a landowner’s argument that the company should have been forced to prove it qualified as a common carrier before it was given access to private property.
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May 23, 2013
No Future For Climate Change Torts, Attys Say
With the U.S. Supreme Court and the Fifth Circuit recently pulling the plug on suits blaming energy companies for spewing greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming and extreme weather, attorneys say the pursuit of climate change tort litigation is approaching a dead end, leaving legislation and regulation as the only viable outlets to tackle the issue.
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May 23, 2013
Chevron Investors Seek SEC Probe Over $19B Ecuador Battle
A coalition of Chevron Corp. shareholders asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday to investigate the oil giant over allegations it has misled investors about the potential impact of a bitterly contested $19 billion Amazonian pollution judgment.
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May 23, 2013
Pa. Rep. Pushes Bill To Track Fracking Health Effects
Following a hearing in which experts accused Pennsylvania regulators of inadequately protecting public health and the environment from the effects of Marcellus Shale drilling, organizer Rep. Greg Vitali, D-Delaware, announced Wednesday that he would push legislation expanding the responsibilities of the state's health agency.
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May 22, 2013
Cooley Boosts Litigation Team With DLA Piper Enviro Atty
Cooley LLP said Wednesday it added a DLA Piper attorney with expertise in environmental, product liability and real estate suits to ramp up its national litigation practice in San Diego.
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May 22, 2013
FERC Nixes Permit For Tidal Energy Project On NJ River
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Monday denied a preliminary permit for a tidal energy project proposed for New Jersey’s Manasquan River, after ruling the applicant, Natural Currents Energy Services LLC, had failed to follow regulatory guidelines in its exploration of a prior, nearly identical project.
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May 22, 2013
House Votes To Let Keystone Proceed Without Obama's OK
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed by a 241-175-1 vote a bill that would allow the controversial Keystone XL pipeline to proceed without presidential approval, a day after President Barack Obama threatened to veto the measure if it passes Congress.
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May 22, 2013
NJ Court Orders DEP To Revisit Brownfield Cleanup Loan
A New Jersey appellate court on Wednesday ordered the state’s environmental regulator to reconsider a grant application for contamination cleanup costs from a property owner that says the regulator capriciously denied its application due to a change in its corporate structure.
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May 22, 2013
Jordan Cove Wants $7.5B LNG Project Approved By FERC
Jordan Cove Energy Project LP on Tuesday set the ball rolling on a request for approvals from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for its proposed $7.5 billion liquefied natural gas export facility in Oregon, which will link U.S. and Canadian markets to Asia-Pacific.
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May 22, 2013
Refiners Reach $4M Deal To Settle Mich. Cleanup Suit
Chem-Serve Corp. and Dearborn Refining Co. have agreed to pay $3.8 million to settle a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency suit over hazardous substances spilled or abandoned at waste oil sites in Michigan, according to a judgment filed Wednesday.
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May 22, 2013
Pa. Fracking Wastewater Plants Agree To $30M Upgrades
A western Pennsylvania operator of plants that treat fracking wastewater will pay as much as $30 million to upgrade the facilities to meet more stringent environmental standards under a settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday.
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May 22, 2013
Miami-Dade OKs $1.6B In Sewer Improvements
Miami-Dade County will spend $1.6 billion over the next 15 years to upgrade its aging, stressed sewer system under a settlement with federal and state environmental agencies approved by the county commissioners Tuesday.
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May 22, 2013
Patton Boggs Partner Must Testify in $19B Chevron RICO Suit
A New York federal judge Tuesday ordered a Patton Boggs LLP partner to give a deposition in a dispute over a $19.2 billion Ecuadorean pollution judgment against Chevron Corp. and refused to limit it to subjects related to documents he ordered the firm to turn over.
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May 22, 2013
Mo. Lawmakers Urge Obama To Rethink Plant Emissions Rule
A group of U.S. lawmakers from Missouri on Wednesday joined a chorus of legislators urging President Barack Obama to press the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to amend its proposed rule capping greenhouse gas emissions for new power plants, saying it would effectively outlaw any new coal-fired plants.
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May 22, 2013
LNG Export Project Could Pollute Water, Park Service Says
The National Park Service on Wednesday expressed concerns about the potential environmental impact of a proposed eastern Georgia terminal for the overseas export of natural gas, saying the project could lead to increased water pollution and shoreline erosion and harm a protected national monument.
Expert Analysis
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How To Avoid The Dirty Side Of Clean Energy
Recent news reports on the RusHydro embezzlement, a U.S. Virgin Islands senator's arrest and the Italian mafia infiltration suggest that the not-so-clean side of the clean energy sector may come under greater scrutiny around the world. These reports should serve as a sobering reminder for companies of the risks and consequences of international corruption, say attorneys with Covington & Burling LLP.
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The Starstruck Medical Causation Trend
In the technical sense, medical causation answers whether an accused substance brought about some alleged disease. But rarely are the central causal allegations in major toxic torts purely courtroom affairs — publicity and politics now drive the litigation, with plaintiff verdicts begetting more publicity, says James Sabovich of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP.
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An Opportunity To Limit Prop 65 Abuse
The long-awaited proposed reforms to California's Proposition 65 are welcome and needed as they would greatly reduce the number of frivolous Prop. 65 lawsuits and alleviate the defense costs for manufacturers, says Mark Johnson of Alston & Bird LLP.
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Rise Of The Machines — Predictive Coding Goes Mainstream
The pros of using predictive coding far outweigh the cons. Given the heavy pressure on law firms and in-house counsel to reduce discovery costs, as well as the Justice Department's recent stance on the subject, it appears predictive coding will continue to emerge from the obscure world of legal technology to the mainstream of legal practice, say Michael Moscato and Myles Bartley of Curtis Mallet-Prevost Colt & Mosle LLP.
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The Oil And Gas Operator's Texas Advantage
The interpretation by the Supreme Court of Texas in Reeder v. Wood County Energy LLC grants vast protection to oil and gas operators, but by doing so, it is perceived by some as muddling the differences between tort and contract law, says Michael Bolton and Kate Kalanick of Faegre Baker Daniels LLP.
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Know Your Risks Before Going Green In Construction
Although there are benefits to “going green” in the construction, development and operation of buildings, there are also risks unique to green building that will test the boundaries of coverage under typical liability insurance policies, say attorneys with Sedgwick LLP.
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4th Circ. Weighs In On Bona Fide Purchaser Defense
The Fourth Circuit recently issued a ruling in PCS Nitrogen Inc. v. Ashley II of Charleston that may limit the availability of the bona fide prospective purchaser defense. By narrowly construing one of the elements of the BFPP defense, the court has underscored the importance of strict compliance with all requirements of the defense, say attorneys with K&L Gates LLP.
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Get Ready For Stricter RMP Enforcement
The recent $4 million settlement by Tyson Foods Inc. represents one of the largest penalties for a stand-alone risk management program enforcement case since the provision was added to the Clean Air Act in 1990. This case also exemplifies the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s increasing focus on RMP compliance and its intention to seek ever-larger penalties for RMP violations, say attorneys with Kilpatrick Townsend Stockton LLP.
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Another Challenge To Calif. Cap-And-Trade Law
The California Air Resources Board has again been sued over its implementation of the Global Warming Solutions Act in Morning Star Packing Co., et al. v. CARB, which resembles an earlier action brought by the California Chamber of Commerce. Petitioners of both cases face the difficult challenge of convincing the court to derail a massive regulatory scheme that is now well underway, say attorneys with Marten Law PLLC.
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The Who, What And Why Of Public-Private Partnerships
Public-private partnerships have been used in a wide range of sectors to provide public services, from power plants and railroads to hospitals and sanitation plants. Yet there are a variety of potential contractual arrangements and the financing of a PPP can be complex, say Maryam Khosharay and Herbert Glaser of Haynes and Boone LLP.