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January 17, 2025
SHREVEPORT, La. — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was ordered to decide by Jan. 22 a small refinery’s petition for hardship relief from the Clean Air Act’s (CAA) Renewable Fuel Standard program after a Louisiana federal judge, in granting the refinery’s motion for summary judgment, called the agency’s arguments for an extension “unpersuasive” because it had more than 200 days to decide on the petition but “continuously failed to act.”
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January 16, 2025
CHARLESTON, S.C. — A married couple that runs a dairy farm has moved for leave to file a motion for partial summary judgment in the litigation over contamination from the firefighting agent known as aqueous film forming foam (AFFF), which contains per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), contending that they are entitled to recover the costs associated with compliance requirements related to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act.
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January 14, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 13 invited the solicitor general to file a brief expressing the views of the United States on the issue of whether the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was correct in ruling that two Washington state-issued National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits applied to the entirety of a terminal where stormwater discharges entered into Puget Sound on the grounds that private citizens cannot bring actions in federal court to enforce certain state permit conditions under the Clean Water Act (CWA).
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January 14, 2025
NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge in Louisiana has granted the U.S. government’s motion to dismiss an amended counterclaim filed by a defendant chemical company in an injury lawsuit involving carcinogenic chloroprene emissions from neoprene manufacturing operations, ruling that the chemical company’s argument that the district court has jurisdiction to review the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s action would “nullify Congress’ choice” to assign the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to review Clean Air Act (CAA) actions, whether the EPA acted lawfully or not.
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January 14, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 13 denied a pair of petitions for writ of certiorari filed by two groups of oil companies that asked the court to determine whether the Hawaii Supreme Court erred in finding that claims arising from the companies’ alleged efforts to conceal the potential effects of their fossil fuel products on global climate change are not preempted by federal law.
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January 13, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 13 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by four states led by Ohio that asked the court to determine whether the Clean Air Act (CAA) allows for remand to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to supplement the administrative record with new details after a rule is promulgated in reference to establishment of implementation plans for attaining ozone air quality standards.
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January 10, 2025
POCATELLO, Idaho — The United States is seeking recovery of remediation costs, a declaratory judgment and a federal lien under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act from and against the owners of a site in downtown Burley, Idaho, stemming from the release of hazardous substances following the demolition of two buildings that were damaged by fire.
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January 09, 2025
NEWARK, N.J. — The United States and several third-party defendants have asked a New Jersey federal judge to dismiss counterclaims and a complaint an environmental company filed alleging liability for response and damage costs and seeking declaratory judgment for remediation under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) stemming from releases of hazardous substances at a chlorine production facility after the judge refused to reconsider his denial of a previous motion filed by the company asking for dismissal of initial liability claims.
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January 08, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — New York and several other states and municipalities filed an amicus curiae brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which has filed a merits brief asking the justices to vacate a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals order and remand with instructions to transfer a case regarding the agency’s decisions to deny several small refineries’ requests for exemptions from the Clean Air Act’s (CAA) Renewable Fuel Standard program to the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
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January 06, 2025
WOODBURY, N.J. — The special counsel to the New Jersey attorney general and the plaintiffs filed a motion in New Jersey state court seeking $36,705,834.80 in attorney fees for their work in reaching a $392,781,963.69 settlement to resolve the state’s lawsuit for cleanup and removal costs from contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
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January 06, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two groups of oil companies argue in separate supplemental U.S. Supreme Court briefs that Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar fails to justify elements of the United States’ position and mischaracterizes federal common-law arguments in an amicus curiae brief filed in two related cases expressing views on whether the Hawaii Supreme Court erred in finding that claims arising from the companies’ alleged efforts to conceal effects their fossil fuel products would have on global climate change are not preempted by federal law.
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January 03, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Four states that filed a petition for a writ of certiorari asking the U.S. Supreme Court to determine whether the Clean Air Act (CAA) allows for remand to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to supplement the administrative record with new details after a rule is promulgated in reference to establishment of implementation plans for attaining ozone air quality standards say in a reply brief that review is necessary now to keep the issue “laser-focused on the rulemaking process” and offer “a more specific answer, grounded in statutory text.”
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January 02, 2025
SAN FRANCISCO — Citing lack of jurisdiction, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel has granted an environmental organization’s motion to dismiss an appeal the cities of Sunnyvale and Mountain View, Calif., filed of a federal court’s denial of reconsideration of interim attorney fees to the organization in a Clean Water Act (CWA) case.
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December 20, 2024
NEW ORLEANS — A splintered en banc Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals narrowly affirmed a $14.25 million penalty against ExxonMobil Corp. for air pollution violations at a Texas facility with only one judge expressly agreeing with the decision and others offering varying responses ranging from a concurrence seeking a higher penalty to dissents challenging standing and other factors.
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December 17, 2024
FORT WAYNE, Ind. — A group of plaintiffs asserting claims of personal injury from exposure to trichloroethylene, vinyl chloride, benzene and other chemicals in their drinking water have asked a federal judge in Indiana to alter or amend an opinion and order dismissing three claims for relief, stating that there is no subject matter jurisdiction because the judge concluded that the plaintiffs lack standing.
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December 17, 2024
TULSA, Okla. — After an Oklahoma federal judge denied a motion to postpone an evidentiary hearing in a long-running case regarding pollution and degradation of waters in the Illinois River Watershed (IRW) by Tyson Foods Inc. and other Arkansas-based poultry plant operators, the parties stipulated to allowing a report from state expert witness Katie Mendoza to be accepted as evidentiary proffer in upcoming proceedings on potential injunctive relief and prudential mootness.
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December 13, 2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 13 partially granted a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a group of private parties representing the liquid fuel industry and left pending a second petition by 17 states led by Ohio, both filed in a dispute over whether the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to waive new Clean Air Act (CAA) standards for automobile emissions as they apply to California.
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December 13, 2024
SPOKANE, Wash. — A federal judge in Washington did not abuse his discretion when imposing an $850,000 penalty on an anhydrous ammonia supplier and requiring the company’s compliance under the Clean Air Act (CAA) and Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) for storing train cars carrying a regulated hazardous substance at its Othello facility, a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled in an unpublished memorandum opinion.
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December 12, 2024
CLEBURNE, Texas — Texas sued 3M Co. and other makers of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in state court on Dec. 11, arguing that they manufactured and marketed consumer products that contain PFAS and “profited immensely” while they knew that the products posed risks to human health and the environment.
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December 11, 2024
CHARLESTON, S.C. — A federal judge in South Carolina on Dec. 10 issued an order pertaining to all cases in the multidistrict litigation for the firefighting agent known as aqueous film forming foam (AFFF), which contains per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), directing one of the defendants in the case to prepare and produce a witness to speak for the corporation pursuant to a notice of deposition under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 30(b)(6) on events that took place after 2002.
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December 11, 2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and intervening states are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to deny a petition for a writ of certiorari that four other states filed asking the court to determine whether the Clean Air Act (CAA) allows for remand to the EPA to supplement the administrative record with new details after a rule is promulgated in reference to establishment of implementation plans for attaining ozone air quality standards, stating that review would be premature and a departure from the high court’s usual practice.
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December 10, 2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has finalized risk management rules that ban use of the toxic chemicals trichloroethylene (TCE) and perchloroethylene (PCE) and require worker protections under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).
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December 09, 2024
TACOMA, Wash. — A Washington metal manufacturing facility will close by the end of the year pursuant to a consent decree between the operator and a grassroots environmental organization following allegations of violations of the Clean Water Act (CWA) for discharging pollutants into the Port of Tacoma.
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December 06, 2024
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A federal magistrate judge in New York has granted a motion to seal on an interim basis an answer and counterclaims filed by one of roughly 40 defendants sued under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) for allegedly releasing hazardous substances into the Gowanus Canal, citing preservation of confidential materials.
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December 06, 2024
MADISON, Wis. — Residents have filed a putative class action against 3M Co. in Wisconsin federal court seeking punitive damages for groundwater contamination they say is the result of “willful, wanton, malicious, and/or reckless conduct” in connection with 3M’s operation of a quarry and a facility where roofing shingles containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been created and disposed of for decades.