Environmental

  • September 27, 2024

    Hurricane Helene Losses Could Exceed $5B: Market Analyst

    The losses from Hurricane Helene, a Category 4 storm that slammed into Florida's panhandle Thursday evening, could exceed $5 billion and challenge insurers dealing with high reinsurance costs, according to an early estimate from the insurer credit rating company AM Best.

  • September 27, 2024

    GAO Says DOE Could Save Billions On Hanford Waste Plan

    A government watchdog said in a report Friday that the U.S. Department of Energy should heed experts who say the agency could save billions of dollars by distinguishing between high- and lower-level waste at the Hanford Nuclear Site in Washington, one of the biggest cleanups in the world.

  • September 27, 2024

    Energy Cases To Watch In This US Supreme Court Term

    The new U.S. Supreme Court term could be just as action-packed as the previous term was for the energy industry, as the justices will weigh in on how federal agencies conduct environmental reviews and field petitions over climate change policies and lawsuits. Here's a list of energy-related cases to watch this term.

  • September 27, 2024

    NY's Midtown Bus Terminal Clears Enviro Review Hurdle

    The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the Federal Transit Administration said on Friday that the agencies have signed the final environmental impact statement for the replacement of Manhattan's Port Authority Bus Terminal, bringing the $10 billion proposed project closer to becoming reality.

  • September 27, 2024

    Life Sciences Firms Energize IPO Market As Recovery Builds

    Initial public offerings are closing the year's third quarter on an upswing, led mostly by pre-revenue drug developers and select large companies that are seizing opportunities in friendlier capital markets buoyed by interest-rate cuts, generating momentum that experts say could carry over into next year.

  • September 27, 2024

    GM, LG Get Go-Ahead On $150M EV Battery Settlement

    A Michigan federal judge has given preliminary approval to a $150 million settlement to resolve claims that General Motors LLC sold Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicles with faulty batteries made by LG units, finding the deal to be fair and reasonable in resolving the claims.

  • September 27, 2024

    EPA Will Review Wood Stove Emissions Rules To Settle Lawsuit

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency agreed to revisit its emissions standards for residential wood-burning stoves, resolving 10 states' D.C. federal court lawsuit accusing it of slacking on its obligation to do so.

  • September 27, 2024

    $36M Oil Cleanup Row Isn't A Case For Fed. Court, Judge Says

    An Oklahoma federal court tossed a pipeline owner's lawsuit seeking coverage from its excess insurers for an oil spill on tribal land that it said cost over $36 million to clean up, finding the court lacked the subject matter jurisdiction to hear the case.

  • September 27, 2024

    Arctic Seal Habitat Nixed By Alaska Federal Judge

    An Alaska federal judge vacated the National Marine Fisheries Service's designation of critical habitat for bearded seals and Arctic ringed seals.

  • September 27, 2024

    Houston Firm Gets Time In Zeta MDL To Fend Off DQ Bid

    A Texas state judge overseeing a multidistrict litigation created to handle claims stemming from Hurricane Zeta agreed Friday to give a Houston law firm more time to respond to a disqualification bid from plaintiff firm Arnold & Itkin, which says an ex-law clerk who now works for the defense improperly accessed relevant case files.

  • September 27, 2024

    FERC Can't Defend Backtrack On Grid Plan, DC Circ. Told

    The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission can't legally justify its about-face on a Southwest Power Pool plan to regionally allocate the costs of some transmission projects within the grid operator's 14-state footprint, the D.C. Circuit heard.

  • September 27, 2024

    EPA, Ohio Refinery Ink $169M Wastewater Cleanup Deal

    A Cenovus Energy unit has reached a $169 million deal to resolve the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's complaint over pollution from a petroleum refinery in Lima, Ohio, the U.S. Department of Justice and the EPA announced Friday.

  • September 26, 2024

    Nestlé Customers Win Class Cert. In Child Labor Labeling Suit

    A California federal judge on Thursday granted class certification in litigation alleging Nestle USA misleads the public with "sustainably sourced" chocolate labels when its cocoa is produced through child labor and deforestation, rejecting the company's contention that classes can't be lumped together for different labels on different products.

  • September 26, 2024

    Donziger Unveils Plan To Launch Impact Litigation Fund

    Sitting before an intimate audience of environmental investors and business leaders, disbarred environmental lawyer Steven Donziger recounted his 30-year battle with Chevron Corp. and its predecessor Texaco Inc. in Manhattan on Thursday, before laying out his plan to launch an impact litigation fund.

  • September 26, 2024

    11th Circ. Affirms Convictions In Fla. Shark Rescue Case

    The Eleventh Circuit upheld felony theft convictions for two Florida tour boat divers who were prosecuted for freeing sharks they believed were illegally poached, but turned out to be part of a research project conducted with a permit granted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

  • September 26, 2024

    3rd Circ. Rules Commerce Fishery Councils Cannot Veto Regs

    Government-appointed advisory councils that have the power to veto decisions of federal cabinet-level officials run afoul of the U.S. Constitution, the Third Circuit said, stripping that veto power from "regional fishery management councils" that advise the U.S. secretary of commerce.

  • September 26, 2024

    Offended Texas Judge Formally Vacates Buoy Injunction

    A Texas federal judge who took umbrage at a state attorney's suggestion that he may ignore the Fifth Circuit's instruction to lift his injunction on the state's buoy barrier in the Rio Grande ceded to the appellate court on Thursday.

  • September 26, 2024

    Infighting Plagues SF Leaders With High Court Args Imminent

    San Francisco has forged ahead with its effort to convince the U.S. Supreme Court that a federal Clean Water Act permit is too vague for it to comply with, even as a dispute over whether to drop the case has broken out between city leaders.

  • September 26, 2024

    Causation Claim Came Early, BP Spill Workers Tell 11th Circ.

    Cleanup workers of BP's Deepwater Horizon spill who say they were sickened by exposure to crude oil urged the Eleventh Circuit Thursday to reverse a judgment in favor of the company, arguing a Florida judge jumped the gun in tossing expert testimony about the links between their work and the respiratory conditions the workers say they developed.

  • September 26, 2024

    EPA Cleared Of Allegations Of Mishandling Ohio Derailment

    An Ohio federal judge has dismissed allegations that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency mishandled its response to the 2023 East Palestine train derailment, finding little evidence that government officials wrongly cleared air and water quality as safe enough for residents to return home.

  • September 26, 2024

    Conn. PFAS Water Pollution Suit Returned To State Court

    A Connecticut federal judge has sent back to state court a proposed class action accusing the Connecticut Water Co. of knowingly selling water contaminated with dangerous levels of PFAS and failing to take steps to remove the pollutants, saying the water supply system's arguments are "fatally flawed."

  • September 26, 2024

    Feds Split $71M Clean Energy Award Between 13 Tribes

    The Biden administration is investing $71 million to electrify homes in 13 tribal communities across Indian Country in an effort to close ongoing access to electricity gap problems with clean energy sources.

  • September 26, 2024

    6th Circ. Upholds Philips' Win In Glass Plant Pollution Suit

    The Sixth Circuit on Wednesday stood by a Kentucky federal jury's verdict clearing Philips Electronics of proposed class claims brought by Bluegrass State property owners over pollution, agreeing with the jurors and the lower court that the claims over the company's former glass plant were filed too late.

  • September 26, 2024

    VivoPower Keeps HQ In UK To Qualify For $21B Gov't Program

    Sustainable energy solutions company VivoPower International PLC and hydrogen technology business Future Automotive Solutions and Technologies on Thursday outlined additional terms to their proposed $1.13 billion merger, including settling the combined company's headquarters in the U.K. in order to qualify for potential "significant and attractive" government incentives.

  • September 26, 2024

    Ga. Judge Halts Election Over Sapelo Island Zoning Change

    A Georgia state judge pulled the plug on a special election Gullah Geechee residents of Sapelo Island initiated to try to overturn a McIntosh County zoning change that more than doubled the size of dwellings allowed in their Hogg Hummock community.

Expert Analysis

  • A Vision For Economic Clerkships In The Legal System

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    As courts handle increasingly complex damages analyses involving vast amounts of data, an economic clerkship program — integrating early-career economists into the judicial system — could improve legal outcomes and provide essential training to clerks, say Mona Birjandi at Data for Decisions and Matt Farber at Secretariat.

  • What A Louisiana Ruling Means For Pipeline Crossings

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    After a Louisiana appeals court's recent ruling on a conflict between two pipeline projects, operators and developers should review pipeline crossings to ensure that they occur at safe distances — and keep in mind the value of crossing agreements for protecting both sides in case of a dispute, say attorneys at McGuireWoods.

  • ECHR Ruling May Pave Path For A UK Climate Damage Tort

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    In light of case law on the interaction between human rights law and common law, the European Court of Human Rights' recent ruling in KlimaSeniorinnen v. Switzerland, finding the country at fault for failures to tackle global warming, could tip the scales toward extending English tort law to cover climate change-related losses, say lawyers at Cleary.

  • Opinion

    Climate Change Shouldn't Be Litigated Under State Laws

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    The U.S. Supreme Court should reverse the Hawaii Supreme Court's October decision in Honolulu v. Sunoco that Hawaii could apply state law to emissions generated outside the state, because it would lead to a barrage of cases seeking to resolve a worldwide problem according to 50 different variations of state law, says Andrew Ketterer at Ketterer & Ketterer.

  • Regulating Resurrected Species Under The ESA

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    As the prospect of extinct species being resurrected from DNA and reintroduced into the wild grows closer, an analysis of the Endangered Species Act suggests that it could provide a thoughtful, flexible governance framework for such scenarios, say Caroline Meadows and Shelby Bobosky at the SMU Dedman School of Law.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Text Message Data

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    Electronically stored information on cellphones, and in particular text messages, can present unique litigation challenges, and recent court decisions demonstrate that counsel must carefully balance what data should be preserved, collected, reviewed and produced, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • What CRA Deadline Means For Biden Admin. Rulemaking

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    With the 2024 election rapidly approaching, the Biden administration must race to finalize proposed agency actions within the next few weeks, or be exposed to the chance that the following Congress will overturn the rules under the Congressional Review Act, say attorneys at Covington.

  • IP Considerations For Companies In Carbon Capture Sector

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    As companies collaborate to commercialize carbon capture technologies amid massive government investment under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a coherent intellectual property strategy is more important than ever, including proactively addressing and resolving questions about ownership of the technology, say Ashley Kennedy and James De Vellis at Foley & Lardner.

  • Keeping Up With Class Actions: A New Era Of Higher Stakes

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    Corporate defendants saw unprecedented settlement numbers across all areas of class action litigation in 2022 and 2023, and this year has kept pace so far, with three settlements that stand out for the nature of the claims and for their high dollar amounts, says Gerald Maatman at Duane Morris.

  • 5 Climate Change Regulatory Issues Insurers Should Follow

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    The climate change landscape for insurers has changed dramatically recently — and not just because of the controversy over the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate-related risk disclosure rules, says Thomas Dawson at McDermott.

  • What's Extraordinary About Challenges To SEC Climate Rule

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    A set of ideologically diverse legal challenges to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate disclosure rule have been consolidated in the Eighth Circuit via a seldom-used lottery system, and the unpredictability of this process may drive agencies toward a more cautious future approach to rulemaking, say attorneys at Thompson Coburn.

  • Series

    Swimming Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Years of participation in swimming events, especially in the open water, have proven to be ideal preparation for appellate arguments in court — just as you must put your trust in the ocean when competing in a swim event, you must do the same with the judicial process, says John Kulewicz at Vorys.

  • Opinion

    SEC Doesn't Have Legal Authority For Climate Disclosure Rule

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    Instead of making the required legal argument to establish its authority, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate-related disclosure rule hides behind more than 1,000 references to materiality to give the appearance that its rule is legally defensible, says Bernard Sharfman at RealClearFoundation.

  • What 100 Federal Cases Suggest About Changes To Chevron

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    With the U.S. Supreme Court poised to overturn or narrow its 40-year-old doctrine of Chevron deference, a review of 100 recent federal district court decisions confirm that changes to the Chevron framework will have broad ramifications — but the magnitude of the impact will depend on the details of the high court's ruling, say Kali Schellenberg and Jon Cochran at LeVan Stapleton.

  • Opinion

    SEC Should Be Allowed To Equip Investors With Climate Info

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's new rule to require more climate-related disclosures will provide investors with much-needed clarity, despite opponents' attempts to challenge the rule with misused legal arguments, say Sarah Goetz at Democracy Forward and Cynthia Hanawalt at Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change.

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