Living Rivers v. U.S. Oil Sands, Inc.
The Supreme Court of Utah dismissed an environmental group's lawsuit challenging the state's issuance of a discharge permit for a tar sands bitumen-extraction project in the Uintah Basin. The original discharge permit was granted by the Utah Division of Water Quality (DWQ) in 2008. In 2011, the Utah...
Key Operating & Equipment, Inc. v. Hegar
The Supreme Court of Texas held that an oil and gas company may use a road on landowner's property to access its underground mineral rights. The company held an interest oil and gas rights under the landowners' property in addition to several adjoining tracts. In 2000, it pooled the tracts, thereby ...
Hughes v. Treadwell
The Supreme Court of Alaska upheld a ballot initiative that would require legislative approval of the any new large-scale metallic sulfide mining operation—the Pebble Mine gold and copper project—in the Bristol Bay watershed. Despite mining associations' arguments to the contrary, the "Bristol B...
CTS Corp. v. Waldburger
The U.S. Supreme Court held that CERCLA §309 does not preempt a state's statute of repose. The case arose after property owners filed suit against a manufacturing company for alleged groundwater contamination stemming from chemicals stored on property the company sold 24 years ago. The company argu...
Thompson Corners, LLC v. New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
A New York appellate court held that the subsequent owner of property formerly used as a permitted hazardous waste treatment, storage, or disposal (TSD) facility need not provide financial assurance for the ongoing performance of corrective action on the property. Article 27 of New York's Environmen...
Pacific Hide & Fur Depot v. Great American Insurance Co.
A district court held that an insurance company breached its duty to defend a steel company in an underlying contribution case under Montana's Comprehensive Environmental Cleanup and Responsibility Act (CERCA) stemming from the company's alleged release or threatened release of hazardous substances ...