Environmental Law & Climate Change Community News

Developer Loses Bid To Block Govt.'s Clean Water Act Claims

anonymous@localhost.com (Liz Barrett) — Fri, 24 May 2013 16:41:00 -0400

A New York federal judge on Friday denied a developer's request for an injunction barring the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Justice from pursuing Clean Water Act claims over his plans to develop his land, shifting the next phase of the dispute to ongoing civil proceedings. Read More...

JPML Head Says New Mix Of Cases Makes Panel More Picky

anonymous@localhost.com (Liz Barrett) — Fri, 24 May 2013 16:21:00 -0400

The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation has rejected a higher percentage of centralization requests in recent years, a trend the head of the panel told Law360 was due in part to a rise in patent cases and other types of litigation he said were more likely to center on individual issues. Read More...

State Dept. Releasing 1.2M Keystone Comments

anonymous@localhost.com (Liz Barrett) — Fri, 24 May 2013 15:26:00 -0400

The U.S. State Department said Thursday that it will post the "unprecedented" 1.2 million public comments submitted in response to an environmental report regarding TransCanada Corp.'s controversial Keystone XL pipeline — the department's first public release of all the comments for a presidential permit application. Read More...

BLM OKs Calif. Wind Farm Amid Enviro Bird Strike Worries

anonymous@localhost.com (Liz Barrett) — Fri, 24 May 2013 13:56:00 -0400

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Friday approved the construction of a 150-megawatt wind farm in southern California, amid concerns from environmentalists over the agency allowing the project to potentially injure or kill an endangered California condor over its 30-year-lifespan without incurring an Endangered Species Act violation. Read More...

Anti-Whaling Protesters Are Pirates, 9th Circ. Affirms

anonymous@localhost.com (Liz Barrett) — Fri, 24 May 2013 13:27:00 -0400

The Ninth Circuit on Friday affirmed its February ruling that anti-whaling activist Paul Watson and his group are pirates under international law and that Japanese researchers who hunt whales in the Antarctic Ocean deserve an injunction blocking the activists’ piracy. Read More...

W.Va. Asks High Court To Limit Greenhouse Gas Regulation

anonymous@localhost.com (Liz Barrett) — Fri, 24 May 2013 13:15:00 -0400

West Virginia has joined more than a dozen states calling for the U.S. Supreme Court to block the federal government from regulating power plants' greenhouse gas emissions, asking it to overturn a D.C. Circuit ruling endorsing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's finding that the gases endanger public health. Read More...

Energy Storage Bill Would Boost Renewables, Sens. Say

anonymous@localhost.com (Liz Barrett) — Fri, 24 May 2013 12:45:00 -0400

Four U.S senators on Thursday reintroduced a bill that would offer tax incentives for the use of technologies that can store energy, which they claim would spur further renewable energy development and lower electricity costs by reducing the need for electricity at peak hours. Read More...

Conrail Denies Liability For NJ Derailment, Chemical Spill

anonymous@localhost.com (Liz Barrett) — Fri, 24 May 2013 12:11:00 -0400

In a brief filed Tuesday in Pennsylvania state court, Consolidated Rail Corp. said it could not be held liable as a carrier of hazardous material for alleged injuries suffered by a group of nearly two dozen New Jersey residents after a November train derailment and chemical spill. Read More...

Cuomo Asks NY Regulator To Help Ease Electric Car Rollout

anonymous@localhost.com (Liz Barrett) — Fri, 24 May 2013 12:04:00 -0400

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Friday prodded a state regulator to help remove red tape that could slow down a plan to install thousands of charging stations across New York in order to put 40,000 electric and plug-in hybrid cars on the road by 2018. Read More...

Oil Group Challenges Seals' 'Threatened Species' Status

anonymous@localhost.com (Liz Barrett) — Fri, 24 May 2013 09:29:00 -0400

The Alaska Oil & Gas Association sued the National Marine Fisheries Service in Alaska federal court Wednesday, arguing that a recently-implemented rule listing two populations of bearded seals as threatened was not backed by evidence and was an overreach. Read More...

1 Step Forward, 1 Step Back In Enviro Self-Audit Policy

anonymous@localhost.com (Liz Barrett) — Fri, 24 May 2013 08:08:00 -0400

As the New York Department of Environmental Conservation moves forward with a self-audit policy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is seeking ways to pare back its own audit policy. Because audit programs almost undoubtedly achieve compliance, eliminating self-auditing, self-reporting and self-correction is hardly smart or efficient, say Steven Russo and Adam Silverman of Greenberg Traurig LLP. Read More...

$2B Hospital Project Again Clears San Fran Panel

anonymous@localhost.com (Liz Barrett) — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:34:00 -0400

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. Read More...

New Bill Saps States Of Chemical Safety Oversight Powers

anonymous@localhost.com (Liz Barrett) — Thu, 23 May 2013 16:21:00 -0400

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. Read More...

Donziger Loses Bid To Delay $19B Chevron Case

anonymous@localhost.com (Liz Barrett) — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:48:00 -0400

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. Read More...

Cooper Industries To Pay $340K In EPA Cleanup Suit

anonymous@localhost.com (Liz Barrett) — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:24:00 -0400

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. Read More...

States Want NRC To Expand Waste Storage Study's Scope

anonymous@localhost.com (Liz Barrett) — Thu, 23 May 2013 14:28:00 -0400

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. Read More...

Texas Appeals Court Upholds Keystone XL Land Grab

anonymous@localhost.com (Liz Barrett) — Thu, 23 May 2013 14:26:00 -0400

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. Read More...

No Future For Climate Change Torts, Attys Say

anonymous@localhost.com (Liz Barrett) — Thu, 23 May 2013 14:25:00 -0400

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. Read More...

Chevron Investors Seek SEC Probe Over $19B Ecuador Battle

anonymous@localhost.com (Liz Barrett) — Thu, 23 May 2013 13:38:00 -0400

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. Read More...

Pa. Rep. Pushes Bill To Track Fracking Health Effects

anonymous@localhost.com (Liz Barrett) — Thu, 23 May 2013 10:00:00 -0400

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. Read More...

Pa. Rep. Pushes Bill To Track Fracking Health Effects

anonymous@localhost.com (Liz Barrett) — Thu, 23 May 2013 10:00:00 -0400

How To Avoid The Dirty Side Of Clean Energy

anonymous@localhost.com (Liz Barrett) — Thu, 23 May 2013 08:02:00 -0400

Recent news reports on the RusHydro embezzlement, U.S. Virgin Islands senator 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. Read More...

Cooley Boosts Litigation Team With DLA Piper Enviro Atty

anonymous@localhost.com (Liz Barrett) — Wed, 22 May 2013 19:02:00 -0400

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. Read More...

FERC Nixes Permit For Tidal Energy Project On NJ River

anonymous@localhost.com (Liz Barrett) — Wed, 22 May 2013 18:34:00 -0400

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. Read More...

House Votes To Let Keystone Proceed Without Obama's OK

anonymous@localhost.com (Liz Barrett) — Wed, 22 May 2013 17:29:00 -0400

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. Read More...

Environmental Law & Climate Change Community News

Developer Loses Bid To Block Govt.'s Clean Water Act Claims

JPML Head Says New Mix Of Cases Makes Panel More Picky

State Dept. Releasing 1.2M Keystone Comments

BLM OKs Calif. Wind Farm Amid Enviro Bird Strike Worries

Anti-Whaling Protesters Are Pirates, 9th Circ. Affirms

W.Va. Asks High Court To Limit Greenhouse Gas Regulation

Energy Storage Bill Would Boost Renewables, Sens. Say

Conrail Denies Liability For NJ Derailment, Chemical Spill

Cuomo Asks NY Regulator To Help Ease Electric Car Rollout

Oil Group Challenges Seals' 'Threatened Species' Status

1 Step Forward, 1 Step Back In Enviro Self-Audit Policy

$2B Hospital Project Again Clears San Fran Panel 

New Bill Saps States Of Chemical Safety Oversight Powers

Donziger Loses Bid To Delay $19B Chevron Case

Cooper Industries To Pay $340K In EPA Cleanup Suit

States Want NRC To Expand Waste Storage Study's Scope

Texas Appeals Court Upholds Keystone XL Land Grab

No Future For Climate Change Torts, Attys Say

Chevron Investors Seek SEC Probe Over $19B Ecuador Battle

Pa. Rep. Pushes Bill To Track Fracking Health Effects

Pa. Rep. Pushes Bill To Track Fracking Health Effects

How To Avoid The Dirty Side Of Clean Energy

Cooley Boosts Litigation Team With DLA Piper Enviro Atty

FERC Nixes Permit For Tidal Energy Project On NJ River

House Votes To Let Keystone Proceed Without Obama's OK

$2B Hospital Project Again Clears San Fran Panel