In this challenging economic climate, it is not uncommon for some companies who are potentially responsible parties (PRPs) involved in hazardous substances cleanup litigation under the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) to file for bankruptcy protection.
Several key issues have emerged as pivotal in ongoing efforts to reform TSCA. Progress on these complex issues is central to the success of TSCA reform. On July 21, 2011, ELI convened a panel of experts to examine the central issue of whether and what standard of safety should replace TSCA’s current “unreasonable risk” standard for regulating chemicals. Topics addressed included: hazard/exposure/risk criteria; burden of proof; judicial review of Agency decisions; sensitive populations; cost-benefit analysis; and application of the safety standard to new materials/technologies.
The natural gas reserves in the Marcellus Shale gas play offer profound economic potential as new technologies make its extraction economically viable. However, Pennsylvania’s current oil and gas conservation laws lack a comprehensive statutory scheme for compulsory pooling in the state. Existing statutes in major oil and gas-producing states like Oklahoma and Texas, as well as their courts’ interpretation of those statutes, offer lessons for how Pennsylvania might construct an appropriate statutory scheme.
To face the challenges of energy consumption, the United States requires a policy that aims to bring the country to the highest level of residential energy efficiency possible, while educating the next generation of leaders on energy use and the potential for change through efficiency. Standing in the way of improved energy efficiency are behavioral barriers, including information barriers, transaction cost barriers, and landlord-tenant barriers.
The confluence of growing water demand and global warming impacts are stressing U.S. water supplies. Water shortages pose a major threat to the reliability and affordability of U.S. electricity because 96% of the nation’s power comes from thermoelectric and hydropower facilities that require sufficient water to function. State legislatures, energy-planning agencies, and water boards should work in concert to encourage deployment of technologies that will reduce the amount of water needed to produce electricity.
States and the federal government have shared the authority to impose quarantines to prevent the introduction and spread of harmful plant pests. Under the Plant Protection Act of 2000, states must obtain a USDA-approved “special need request” before going beyond the restrictions in a federal quarantine. Requests have been filed over the past decade in response to sudden oak death and light brown apple moth. Despite the continued spread of these pests, the USDA has never approved a state request due to the language of the Act and a restrictive agency interpretation.
On June 21, 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court in American Electric Power (AEP) v. Connecticut held that the Clean Air Act (CAA), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) actions it authorized, displaced any federal common-law right to seek abatement of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants. The widely anticipated decision was important, because it clarified the court’s approach to legislative displacement and dismissed federal common-law public nuisance claims.
On November 16, 2009, hundreds of current and former attorneys, staff members, and friends gathered in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD or the Division) at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). As an alumnus of ENRD, I was tremendously honored to address the group. I began working for the Division on October 9, 1979. It was my first job out of law school, and I could not have been more excited. Nor could I have been more amazed that I had, what I considered, my dream job.
Wind energy development has addressed significant and increasingly complex regulatory requirements. A number of agencies have been involved in the permitting process, and developers must be careful to consider key issues early in the process. On September 14, 2011, ELI cosponsored a seminar with Patton Boggs LLP that covered the landscape of permitting issues that matter most, and what changes may occur as the industry continues to mature.
I must tell you that we have heard much of this before in less sophisticated form. We heard it in 1970 and again in 1977. We heard it repeatedly in the 1980s. It is the same message today and it boils down to this: Impose the cost of pollution on people who breathe, so the people who pollute can avoid the cost of control. I think that is backwards. What must life be like for that asthmatic child when the very air can make her a shut-in and even threaten her life? What does it cost the rest of us to turn our backs on that child when the solution to her problem is known? The late Sen.