EnvironmentalRSS

  • February 11, 2010

    Enviros' Claims Shaved In Oil, Gas Lease Dispute

    The federal judge overseeing nine citizens groups' challenge to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's approval of three quarterly oil and gas lease sales has tossed two environmental law violation claims, but allowed other allegations over the sales to proceed.

  • February 11, 2010

    Mich. Appeals Court Nixes Bid To Force CO2 Rules

    Citizens for Environmental Inquiry has lost its bid to require Michigan authorities to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, with a state appeals court affirming a lower court’s ruling that the group lacks standing to pursue the claim.

  • February 11, 2010

    EU Calls For Trade Ban On Endangered Tuna, Bears

    The European Parliament expressed support on Wednesday for a ban on the trade in endangered species including bluefin tuna and polar bears, as well as all products derived from the creatures.

  • February 10, 2010

    Developer Off Hook For Lead Payments At $47M Site

    A federal appeals court has upheld a judgment for Mermart LLC in a suit brought by investors in its $47.3 million redevelopment project alleging breach of contract for failing to disclose payment deductions in connection with lead paint contamination of the site.

  • February 10, 2010

    US Fights Rohm & Haas Bid To Kill Superfund Suit

    The federal government has fired back at a bid by Rohm and Haas Co. to kill a suit over a New Jersey Superfund site, saying a recent change in appellate case law should toll the statute of limitations to allow the U.S. to recover past cleanup costs.

  • February 10, 2010

    Downey Lures 2 From Paul Hastings For Frisco Office

    Two environmental partners who say they are tired of the BigLaw way of doing business have made the jump from Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker LLP to Downey Brand LLP, where they will co-chair the firm’s new San Francisco office.

  • February 10, 2010

    Ecuador Combats Chevron Arbitration Bid

    The government of Ecuador wants to halt Chevron Corp.’s international arbitration proceeding while a U.S. district court decides if the oil giant is entitled to sidestep a $27 billion Ecuadorean suit against it for vast pollution in the Amazon.

  • February 10, 2010

    Republican Legislators Take GHG Finding To DC Circ.

    Thirteen Republican lawmakers and 17 companies have petitioned a federal appeals court to review the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recent endangerment finding on greenhouse gases, calling the decision a “power grab” by the agency.

  • February 10, 2010

    Cooley Godward Adds Alston Bird Clean Energy Attys

    Two former Alston & Bird LLP partners have joined Cooley Godward Kronish LLP’s clean energy and technologies practice in Washington, where they will focus on project development in the renewable energy sector.

  • February 10, 2010

    Dow Renews Bid To Kill UFW Pesticide Suit

    Pointing to an appeals court's recent decision to dismiss a case with “identical" circumstances, Dow AgroSciences LLC has renewed its motion to wipe out a suit brought by activists over the government's decision to re-register the allegedly harmful pesticide chlorpyrifos.

  • February 10, 2010

    Blank Rome Snags Corporate Litigation Partner

    Blank Rome LLP has expanded its corporate litigation practice by snagging an insurance and environmental law specialist from Robertson Freilich Bruno & Cohen LLC.

  • February 9, 2010

    Chevron Jabs At Damages Expert In $27B Ecuador Suit

    Facing $27 billion in potential damages over vast pollution in the Amazon rain forest, Chevron Corp. has again attacked the integrity of the case in an Ecuadorean court, contending the expert responsible for the damages estimate is motivated by self-interest.

  • February 9, 2010

    Mining Cos. Settle CERCLA Suit For $11.2M In Land

    A federal judge has signed off on a pair of consent decrees between two former mining companies and the federal and South Dakota governments for the transfer of land worth about $11.2 million in lieu of payment for cleanup costs for a contaminated mine site.

  • February 9, 2010

    Mich. Questions $78M Plan To Control Asian Carp

    Federal officials have proposed investing $78.5 million in efforts to combat what they say is the harmful spread of Asian carp throughout the Great Lakes, but Michigan lawmakers are saying the solution does not go far enough in light of evidence that the carp's aggressive spread continues unabated.

  • February 9, 2010

    WildEarth Demands Endangered Parrot Recovery Plan

    The conservation group WildEarth Guardians has sued the U.S. government in an effort to force federal officials to develop a recovery plan for the only surviving parrot species native to the U.S.

  • February 9, 2010

    EPA Orders NuCo Energy To Halt Brine Discharges

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered NuCo Energy Inc. to cease brine discharges into a tributary of Adams Creek in Okmulgee County, Okla.

  • February 8, 2010

    EPA Set To Nix Approval For Bayer Pesticide

    Having failed to prolong a stay for an appeal, Bayer CropScience LP will soon have to quit selling its pesticide spirotetramat while the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency voids Bayer's registration for the pesticide and starts the approval process anew.

  • February 8, 2010

    Ala. Residents To Sue Over Odorous Coal Ash Landfill

    A lawyer for 155 residents in Uniontown, Ala., has indicated his intent to sue a contractor and the operator of a landfill that is accepting coal ash from the site of a massive spill at a Tennessee Valley Authority facility.

  • February 8, 2010

    Boeing Contract Claims Over Superfund Site Nixed

    A federal judge has dismissed contract claims brought by Boeing Co. subsidiary Aviall Services Inc. against Cooper Industries Inc., in a 13-year legal battle over polluted Texas land once owned by Cooper that Aviall says it has spent nearly $15 million cleaning.

  • February 8, 2010

    Oil Sands Pipeline Construction Can Continue: Judge

    The Sierra Club and other environmental groups have lost their bid for a preliminary injunction to halt construction of the Alberta Clipper pipeline, designed to carry heavy crude oil from the oil sands in Canada to Wisconsin.