EnvironmentalRSS

  • January 14, 2010

    Lawyers Tapped For EPA Regions 7, 10

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced the appointment of two lawyers as regional administrators for the agency's Region 7 and Region 10.

  • January 13, 2010

    Law360 Environmental Editorial Advisory Board

    Law360 is pleased to announce the formation of its 2010 environmental editorial advisory board.

  • January 13, 2010

    Judge Revives Oil Leases On Alaska's North Slope

    A state judge has reversed the Alaska Department of Natural Resources' decision to terminate leases held by Exxon Mobil Corp. and three other companies to develop the Point Thomson oil and gas field on Alaska's North Slope, saying the agency denied the companies their right to procedural due process.

  • January 13, 2010

    Kemper On The Hook For $11.5M River Cleanup

    A federal judge has ordered insurance underwriter Kemper Environmental Ltd. to pay Indiana-based steel company Ispat Inland Inc. more than $11.5 million in a breach of contract dispute relating to a hazardous waste cleanup at a facility bordering Lake Michigan.

  • January 13, 2010

    Canadian Inuit Sue EU To Overturn Seal Products Ban

    Canadian Inuit on Wednesday sued the European Union seeking to overturn a near-total ban on the import of seal products into EU countries, saying a “shrill” campaign by anti-sealing lobby groups lacked valid conservation arguments.

  • January 13, 2010

    Fees Award Trimmed In EPA Financial Assurance Suit

    A federal judge has ruled that counsel for the Sierra Club and other environmental groups are entitled to fees in a case brought against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over financial assurance requirements, but that the attorneys should receive less than they requested.

  • January 13, 2010

    Sunoco Settles With Mich. City In Cleanup Costs Suit

    Sunoco Oil Inc. has settled a lawsuit brought by the city of Dearborn, Mich., over its alleged failure to pay nearly $260,000 in cleanup costs for a local property contaminated with petroleum from the company's now-defunct pipeline.

  • January 12, 2010

    AbitibiBowater Unit Settles EPA Air Claims

    Bowater Inc. has settled a Clean Air Act lawsuit brought on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, with a district court approving a deal calling for the bankrupt newsprint producer to better monitor emissions from a Tennessee mill and give the U.S. a $30,000 bankruptcy court claim.

  • January 12, 2010

    NY Stops Drug Flushing At 5 Health Care Facilities

    New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has reached agreements with five upstate health care providers that require them to stop disposing of drugs in sinks and toilets, a step that will improve the quality of drinking water in New York City.

  • January 12, 2010

    Climate Change Action Among 7 EPA Goals For 2010

    Continuing the agency's split from the priorities of the Bush administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced seven key goals for 2010 and beyond that ensure climate change's featured role as an area of concern.

  • January 12, 2010

    EPA Urged To Better Regulate Endocrine Disruptors

    A conservation group has petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to better regulate endocrine-disrupting chemicals, which purportedly can cause fish to develop both male and female sex organs and can harm human reproductive systems as well.

  • January 12, 2010

    Vinson & Elkins Opens Outpost In Silicon Valley

    Vinson & Elkins LLP has established a foothold on the West Coast by opening a new office in Palo Alto, Calif., with three partners from its Texas offices who specialize in clean energy projects, venture capital and intellectual property.

  • January 11, 2010

    Massey May Face Suits Over Polluted Waterways

    A coalition of environmental groups has threatened to hit Massey Energy Co. with a lawsuit over more than 12,000 Clean Water Act and surface mining law violations the coal producer allegedly committed by dumping pollution into West Virginia's Appalachian waterways.

  • January 11, 2010

    Judge Backs Chukchi Sea Take Rule On Polar Bears

    A federal judge has upheld a U.S. Department of the Interior regulation that allows the incidental take of polar bears and Pacific walruses during oil and gas exploration in Alaska's Chukchi Sea, denying a challenge to the rule brought by the Center for Biological Diversity.

  • January 11, 2010

    St. Paul Must Defend Rifle Club In Environmental Suit

    St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Co. must defend the Douglas Ridge Rifle Club against a suit alleging lead from the gun club's property has polluted a nearby river, a federal magistrate judge has ruled.

  • January 11, 2010

    US Hands Out $187M For Vehicle Efficiency Projects

    U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced Monday that nine projects had been selected to receive more than $187 million to investigate ways to improve fuel efficiency for heavy-duty trucks and passenger vehicles.

  • January 11, 2010

    EPA Drops Pennaco Mont. Water Standards Appeal

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has dropped its appeal of a district court's order to re-examine Montana's clean water standards, which Wyoming and several coalbed methane producers had called unscientific in a lawsuit against the agency.

  • January 11, 2010

    Tronox, Arco Near Settlement In Okla. Oil Pollution Suit

    Bankrupt titanium dioxide pigment manufacturer Tronox Worldwide LLC and BP PLC subsidiary Atlantic Richfield Co. have asked a federal judge to stay a pollution cleanup suit brought by Tronox while the parties try to reach a settlement.

  • January 8, 2010

    Injury Claims Tossed In Chevron Refinery Suit

    Finding that the opinions of the plaintiffs' expert witness are unreliable, the judge overseeing a suit against Chevron USA Inc. over contamination and illnesses allegedly caused by a refinery in Ohio has excluded the expert's testimony and thrown out the case.

  • January 8, 2010

    White House Awards $2.3B In Clean Energy Tax Credits

    The White House announced Friday that it had awarded $2.3 billion in tax credits for 183 clean energy manufacturing projects across the country, a move that it says will generate more than 17,000 jobs.