The Ninth Circuit ordered EPA to respond to an administrative petition filed nearly nine years ago requesting a ban on the pesticide chlorpyrifos. EPA has spent nearly a decade reviewing the petitioner's data and arguments. In response to a previous court order directing EPA to specify a date for is...

A district court dismissed Pennsylvania's public nuisance, trespass, and Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practice and Consumer Protection Law claims against various refiners, manufacturers, marketers, distributors, and suppliers of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), a gasoline additive. The case is part ...

The Ninth Circuit denied community groups' petition for review challenging EPA's approval of revisions to California's SIP concerning air emissions from pesticides, known as the "pesticide element." The revisions related to the reduction of volatile organic compounds in the San Joaquin and Ventura a...

A district court dismissed a town's Massachusetts Oil and Hazardous Material Release Prevention and Response Act claim against the corporate spinoffs of Old Monsanto, the sole manufacturer of PCBs in the United States between 1935 and 1979. After discovering PCBs in some of the area schools, the tow...

The Third Circuit upheld a lower court decision dismissing, on standing grounds, a doctor's claim challenging the constitutionality of a Pennsylvania law that limits a doctor's ability to obtain information about the mixture of chemical fluids used during hydraulic fracturing when treating patients ...

A district court denied a motion to dismiss an oil company's lawsuit against a gas station operator and gasoline transporter in which it seeks contribution for groundwater contamination under the New Jersey Joint Tortfeasors Contribution Law, the New Jersey Comparative Negligence Act, and the New Je...

A district court held that a natural resource damages (NRD) settlement agreement between New Jersey and an oil company for methyl tertiary butyl ether groundwater contamination bars the state from seeking product liability claims against the company. The agreement settled all claims for NRD at sites...

The Fifth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision dismissing a lawsuit filed by 11 Louisiana parishes in which they sought penalties under the Louisiana Wildlife Protection Statute for the pollution-related loss of aquatic life and wildlife following the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the ...

A district court dismissed as time-barred Puerto Rico's lawsuit against two gasoline suppliers for groundwater contamination. The commonwealth had sufficient knowledge of both the alleged injury and the identity of the alleged tortfeasors in 2007 when it filed its initial complaint against gasoline ...

The Fourth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision dismissing a widow's claim that a coal company committed fraud on the court and thereby deprived her husband, a coal miner, of nearly a decade of benefits under the Black Lung Benefits Act (BLBA). Because the coal company had admitted liability for ...