A district court dismissed four individuals' claims that the emission of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) from an oil refinery in Chalmette, Louisiana, caused them a variety of physical and mental damages. The toxic tort case involves 1,836 plaintiffs who allege exposure to H2S and SO...
A district court granted in part and denied in part motions to dismiss property owners' CERCLA contribution claims against a company for contamination stemming from a manufactured gas plant that the company's predecessor operated from the 1830s until the early 1900s. In 2010, some of the property ow...
A district court remanded to state court a Louisiana parish's lawsuit against 19 oil and gas companies for alleged environmental damages stemming from the companies' exploration, production, and transportation activities. The parish claims these operations were conducted in violation of the State an...
A California appellate court held that the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) failed to adequately consider greenhouse gas emissions impacts in violation of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) during its preparation of its 2050 regional transportation plan. A lower court ruled...
A New Jersey appellate court held that the state environmental agency exceeded its authority when it seized control of a privately owned landfill under an emergency order intended to abate an alleged imminent threat to the environment arising from continued emissions of hydrogen sulfide. The order e...
A Washington State appellate court held that a county ordinance banning the land application of the most common class of biosolids is unconstitutional. The state' s biosolids program was created in 1992 to facilitate and encourage recycling, rather than disposal, of sewage waste, and the state's env...
The Ninth Circuit reversed a lower court's grant of summary judgment in favor of an energy construction company for whistleblower retaliation against an employee in a case concerning cleanup efforts of nuclear waste at the Hanford Nuclear site in Washington state. The “opt-out” provision of the ...
A district court approved a $5.15 billion settlement agreement—the largest such recovery in American history—resolving two lawsuits in which a spin-off company and the U.S. government asserted fraudulent transfer and other claims against an energy company and its parent. In 2006, the energy comp...
A California appellate court held that San Diego County's adoption of a climate action plan violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Pursuant to the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, the county issued a program environmental impact report (PEIR) and adopted a number o...