The passage of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 19901 and its attendant Statement of the Senate Managers once again raises the issue of the proper role and treatment of environmental self-audit programs in the field of environmental enforcement.
Are lenders' fears of Superfund liability justified? The conventional wisdom holds that they are. However, this hasty judgment may not be able to withstand legal scrutiny.
The federal government and citizen groups are attempting to increase enforcement of environmental laws and regulations. Under the major environmental laws, government agencies and other groups may sue alleged violators for injunctive relief and civil penalties. Several of these laws authorize plaintiffs to recover civil penalties that (1) deprive violators of the economic savings they may have obtained through noncompliance and (2) account for harm to human health and the environment.
The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) was designed "to facilitate the prompt clean up of hazardous dumpsites by providing a means of financing both governmental and private responses and by placing the ultimate financial burden upon those responsible for the danger." CERCLA establishes a trust fund, known as the "Superfund," that can be used to finance government response actions.
Editors' Summary: The Superfund liability scheme has been heavily criticized for creating needless litigation among potentially responsible parties (PRPs) and for generating inordinately high costs and extended delays in cleaning up hazardous waste sites. This Article discusses the transaction costs and delays arising at each step in the Superfund process from initial listing of a site on the CERCLA national priorities list, through the search for PRPs, to the formation and maintenance of PRP committees and the remedial investigation/feasibility study processes.
Editors' Summary: To practice environmental law in the 1990s, it is necessary to be familiar with international trade. Trade concerns affect every aspect of environmental law from agricultural subsidies to the disparate impact of pollution abatement regulation on pricing. The following two Dialogues present an overview of the issues and insight on the relationship between international trade and the environment. The first, by a member of the Trade and Environmental Committees of the U.S.
MARK C. SCHROEDER: Let me begin by putting in context the activities and mission of the U.S. Department of Energy. I will then review the current state of regulation of radionuclides and source, special nuclear, and by-product material, and will conclude with a discussion of the future directions at the Department.
Everyone would agree that the national defense and foreign policy have been exclusively in the federal domain, and that they typically do not admit of state intervention.
Editors' Summary: On November 15, 1990, President Bush signed into law the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, the first comprehensive changes to the Act in 13 years. During the intervening months since its enactment, EPA has geared up, streamlined, and commenced its rulemaking processes to accommodate the regulatory burden the new law places on the Agency. As amended by the 1990 amendments, the Clean Air Act instructs EPA to promulgate 27 rules during each of the first two years.
Editors' Summary: On November 15, 1990, President Bush signed into law the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, the first comprehensive changes to the Act in 13 years. During the intervening months since its enactment, EPA has geared up, streamlined, and commenced its rulemaking processes to accommodate the regulatory burden the new law places on the Agency. As amended by the 1990 amendments, the Clean Air Act instructs EPA to promulgate 27 rules during each of the first two years.
Editors' Summary: On November 15, 1990, President Bush signed into law the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, the first comprehensive changes to the Act in 13 years. During the intervening months since its enactment, EPA has geared up, streamlined, and commenced its rulemaking processes to accommodate the regulatory burden the new law places on the Agency. As amended by the 1990 amendments, the Clean Air Act instructs EPA to promulgate 27 rules during each of the first two years.