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Environmental
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May 15, 2013
NRG Settles States' Suit Over Emissions At Pa. Plant
NRG Energy Inc. on Wednesday settled a suit launched by New Jersey and Connecticut alleging the energy giant improperly operated two coal-fueled electric generating units at a Pennsylvania power plant that polluted the air, agreeing to stop using coal to fuel the facility by June 2014.
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May 15, 2013
Bill Would Add Gas-Based Ethanol To Renewable Fuel Program
U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday again set their sights on the controversial federal renewable fuel standards program, introducing a bipartisan bill that would allow natural-gas based ethanol to compete with corn-based ethanol under the standard, which they claim will combat rising food and feedstock prices.
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May 14, 2013
Texas Sen. Cornyn Seeks To Push Mexico On Water Treaty
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, on Tuesday put forward an amendment to a water resources law calling on the Obama administration to force Mexico to uphold its water obligations to the U.S. under a 1944 water sharing treaty to stem a growing water shortage in his home state.
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May 14, 2013
Enviros Join Fight Over Miami Sewage System
A Florida federal judge on Tuesday granted an environmental group's bid to intervene in the federal and Florida governments' Clean Water Act suit alleging Miami-Dade County failed to properly maintain its sewage treatment system.
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May 14, 2013
Fla. Agency Says County Can't Restrict Electricity Access
Florida's Public Service Commission on Tuesday exercised jurisdiction in a dispute pitting No Name Key homeowners against Monroe County, allowing the homeowners to hook up to the electrical grid in a move the county says could undermine efforts by local governments to manage development.
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May 14, 2013
Chevron Brass Must Testify In RICO Suit Over $19B Judgment
The New York federal judge overseeing a racketeering suit related to a $19.2 billion Ecuadorean pollution judgment against Chevron Corp. on Tuesday upheld a magistrate's ruling that the company’s CEO and general counsel must give depositions, saying there was no legal reason to overturn the decision.
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May 14, 2013
Smaller Sandy Buyout Sparks Fears Over Future Storm Costs
While buyouts for some New York homeowners smacked by Superstorm Sandy are still in the offing, the relocation program's scale has shrunk from the size initially envisioned by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, leading some environmentalists to lament the potential for a costly repeat of the hurricane's damage.
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May 14, 2013
5th Circ. Upholds Dismissal Of Katrina Emissions Suit
The Fifth Circuit on Tuesday affirmed the dismissal of a proposed class action accusing Shell Oil Co. and other companies of strengthening Hurricane Katrina and causing property damage through their greenhouse gas emissions, ruling the allegations had already been decided.
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May 14, 2013
EIB Pledges $181M For Polish Power Station
The European Investment Bank will loan about €140 million ($181 million) to a Polish contractor for the construction of a 450-megawatt, energy-efficient power station at the Stalowa Wola power plant in southeastern Poland, the bank said Monday.
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May 14, 2013
Power-One Investor Says $1B ABB Offer Is Too Low
Solar energy firm Power-One Inc. and its executives were hit with a shareholder class action Tuesday claiming that its proposed $1 billion sale to Swiss conglomerate ABB Ltd. undervalues Power-One with the renewable energy market set to explode over the next decade.
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May 14, 2013
Post-Sandy Coastal Protection Bills Advance In NJ Assembly
A New Jersey Assembly panel on Monday approved three measures meant to redevelop shorelines damaged by Hurricane Sandy, prioritize shore protection projects, and help property owners rebuild at higher elevations to protect against future storm surges.
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May 14, 2013
DOI Broke Law In Shutting Oyster Farm, 9th Circ. Hears
Former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Kenneth Salazar violated federal environmental and administrative laws when he refused to renew a California oyster farm's permit to continue operating in protected wilderness, the farm's attorneys argued Tuesday in a fight over the future of the 80-year-old operation.
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May 14, 2013
Local Laws Can't Kill FERC-Approved Projects, DC Circ. Hears
A Dominion Resources Inc. subsidiary on Tuesday urged the D.C. Circuit to tell states they cannot shelve Federal Energy Regulatory Commission-approved proposals based on local laws, claiming Maryland refuses to approve its gas compression plant proposal due to a local zoning ordinance.
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May 14, 2013
DC Circ. Snuffs Challenge To 1.1-Gigawatt Nuke Expansion
The D.C. Circuit on Tuesday rejected nine environmental groups' attempts to delay the expansion of a Georgia nuclear power plant, ruling that a federal regulator already had taken into account safety concerns stemming from 2011's Fukushima plant disaster.
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May 14, 2013
EIR For $4B LAX Overhaul Gets Prelim OK From City Council
The Los Angeles City Council affirmed, on a second reading Tuesday, the contentious environmental impact report for a proposed $4.1 billion overhaul of the Los Angeles International Airport.
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May 14, 2013
ExxonMobil Fights $1.7M Oil Pipeline Spill Penalty
ExxonMobil Pipeline Co., an ExxonMobil Corp. unit, says it took proper precautions ahead of a 2011 pipeline failure that dumped more than 60,000 gallons of oil into Montana's Yellowstone River and claims the $1.7 million fine imposed by regulators is excessive, according to a document recently posted by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
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May 14, 2013
Q&A With Waller's Ed Callaway
I’m hopeful that the pending revisions to ASTM Standard 1527, due out later this year, will raise the level of professionalism applied to phase I environmental site assessments, says Ed Callaway, head of the environmental and regulatory law group at Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis LLP.
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May 14, 2013
Feds Fight Appleton Papers' Bid For $100M CERCLA Recovery
The U.S. government told a Wisconsin federal judge Monday that Appleton Papers Inc.'s lack of liability for environmental damage at the Lower Fox River Superfund site does not allow the company to recover $100 million in remediation costs it has already agreed to pay.
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May 13, 2013
Mormon Ranch Could Delay $1.5B Fla. Rail Line's Start Date
The manager of a massive Central Florida ranch owned by the Mormon Church wrote the state's transportation secretary last month urging him not to rush into an agreement on a right-of-way corridor for a privately funded $1.5 billion passenger rail line that would connect Miami and Orlando.
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May 13, 2013
Synagro Ch. 11 Auction OK'd After Stalking Horse Bid Grows
A Delaware bankruptcy judge on Monday signed off on Synagro Technologies Inc.'s bid procedures calling for a Chapter 11 auction next month after the biosolid recycler resolved the objections of a private equity firm that is its largest creditor by arranging for the stalking horse bidder to kick in an extra $10 million.
Expert Analysis
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Condemn Now, CEQA-Compliance Later? Maybe
Must a public project receive environmental clearance before an agency may begin acquiring property for it? In Golden Gate Land Holdings LLC v. East Bay Regional Park District, the California Court of Appeal answered no, permitting an agency to file an eminent domain action prior to complying with the California Environmental Quality Act, but the holding appears limited, say attorneys with Nossaman LLP.
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Climate Change Is Heating Up In DC
Even though there probably will not be a major climate change bill passed during the 113th Congress, we can expect a very active next couple of years — the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will continue to tout new environmental policies and pursue a lengthy regulatory agenda to control emissions from fossil fuel power plants and other industries, say attorneys with K&L Gates LLP.
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The Historical Context For Industrial Pollution — Part 1
The environmental laws and regulations enacted in the 1970s reflect a modern understanding that even a trace of certain chemicals may pose a potential human health threat many years after their release into the environment. The results of this radical change in scientific understanding are the enforcement actions brought today under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, says Neil Shifrin of Berkeley Research Group LLC.
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The Way Forward For Fracking After CBD V. Salazar
In the recent ruling of Center for Biological Diversity v. U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the court ruled against the BLM on the National Environmental Policy Act and called for further review of fracking. The decision is one of the early takes on the thorny legal pathway that lies ahead for parties seeking to develop federal shale oil and gas reserves, says Tyler Welti of Perkins Coie LLP.
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What To Expect From EPA's New Vessel General Permits
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recently released a final permit covering vessel discharges under the Clean Water Act. One of the most significant changes with this new permit is the inclusion of numeric effluent limits to control the release of invasive species in ballast water, says Meline MacCurdy of Marten Law PLLC.
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What To Know About IRS' 'Begun Construction' Tests
The Internal Revenue Service's recently published Notice 2013-29 provides two new "begun construction" tests used to determine whether certain projects qualify for a production tax credit or investment tax credit. While these tests are very similar to the U.S. Department of Treasury's Section 1603 rules, practitioners should take note of the important differences, says Forrest Milder of Nixon Peabody LLP.
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A Guide To Effective Environmental Due Diligence
You are general counsel of a publicly traded medical device company and have found that your manufacturer's facility might have dumped some related toxic materials on the plant site — how can you diligence this? A key issue, among others, is setting a deal-oriented scope at the beginning of the environmental due diligence process, say attorneys with Haynes & Boone LLP.
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3 Ways To Leverage Internet Access During Trial
A survey of local rules for courthouses with available Wi-Fi has shown that no courts expressly prohibit the use of Internet by lawyers to gain information about the venire. Interestingly, at least one appellate court has held that it was error not to allow counsel to access the Internet during jury selection, say Derek Sarafa and William O'Neil of Winston & Strawn LLP.
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How A Product Liability Case May Impact Your Insurance
The recent $236 million jury verdict in New Hampshire over the use of the gasoline additive MTBE raises the question of whether litigation of product liability losses may adversely impact insurance coverage. More specifically, it reminds companies to be aware that factual evidence that can resolve insurance coverage issues may be available in the public domain, say attorneys with Carroll Burdick & McDonough LLP.
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Top Issues Facing Landowners Of Oil And Gas
Due to recent advances in exploration and production technology, energy companies are competing for acreage positions in unconventional resource plays and aggressively seeking oil and gas leases from landowners and owners of mineral rights. For the landowner who also owns the related mineral rights, oil and gas production has the potential to yield significant economic benefits, say attorneys with Greenberg Traurig LLP.