In re: Mallinckrodt PLC, No. 20-12522 (D. Del. Dec. 4, 2023). A proposed settlement agreement grants the United States an allowed unsecured claim against a settling CERCLA defendant on behalf of DOI in the amount of $56,880,784, and for EPA in the amount of $499,216, for past costs and future liability as a potential liable party at the Sangamo Electric Dump/Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge Site.
United States v. Heritage-Crystal Clean, LLC, No. 1:22-cv-00303 (N.D. Ill. Dec. 7, 2023). Under a proposed consent decree, a settling RCRA defendant that allegedly violated various hazardous waste management requirements at five of its facilities must comply with extensive measures to assure its facilities do not manage used parts washing solvent that is subject to regulation as hazardous waste and pay civil penalties totaling $1,162,500.
United States v. TCI Pacific Communications LLC, No. 23-4218 (C.D. Ill. Dec. 5, 2023). Under a proposed consent decree, a settling CERCLA defendant must pay a total of $368,831.16 in EPA’s response costs and perform remedial work with respect to Operable Unit 4 of the DePue/New Jersey Zinc/Mobil Chemical Corp. Superfund Site in DePue, Illinois.
United States v. Wyeth Holdings LLC, No. 2:23-cv-22922 (D.N.J. Dec. 6, 2023). Under a proposed consent decree, a settling CERCLA defendant that allegedly released hazardous substances at or from the American Cyanamid Superfund Site in Somerset County, New Jersey, causing injury to floodplains, riparian areas, and wetlands adjacent to the site and the biota supported by these habitats, must undertake and fund the “Duke Farms Forested Floodplain Restoration Project,” which will restore 112 areas of former farmland located upstream of the site on the Raritan River to a natural habitat, as well as pay for assessment and oversight costs.
The Federal Highway Administration amended its regulations governing national performance management measures to require state departments of transportation and metropolitan planning organizations to establish declining carbon dioxide targets for the greenhouse gas emissions associated with transportation and report on progress toward the achievement of those targets.
EPA announced the availability of the Draft National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics, developed by the Agency, USDA, and FDA to help prevent the loss and waste of food, where possible, increase recycling of food and other organic materials to support a more circular economy for all, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, save households and businesses money, and build cleaner and healthier communities.
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) Climate Disclosure Rule has provoked heated controversy on many fronts. Several commenters have argued that the First Amendment precludes the SEC from demanding climate-related disclosures. This Article grapples with the unsettled state of “compelled commercial speech” doctrine, arguing that the rule’s constitutionality should be scrutinized using the prevailing rational basis test, and that even under the intermediate scrutiny test, the rule should be upheld.
Agrivoltaics, the concept of using solar energy systems to enhance agricultural production and generate renewable energy on the same plot of land, offers a lifeline to beleaguered farmers and communities facing water shortages, cost increases, and marginal agricultural profitability. This concept seeks to aid California in its ambitious renewables portfolio standard, and could reduce the impacts of climate change and the toll agricultural operations take on the San Joaquin Valley’s groundwater resources.
Oil companies and their agents have been actively involved in creating and propagating climate change disinformation for the past half-century. In response to this deception, more than two dozen American states and cities have sued these companies under traditional tort-based causes of action like public nuisance, fraud, negligence, and failure to warn, alleging that the companies fueled uncertainty about climate science and undercut public support for necessary climate action.
EPA entered into a proposed administrative settlement under CERCLA for the recovery of past response costs concerning the Seerley Road Fire Site in Indianapolis, Indiana.