The Federal Claims court denied a mining company's motion and the government's cross-motion for summary judgment in a Fifth Amendment takings claim stemming from various CERCLA remediation actions taken at the mine. The company argued that the government effectively denied access to parts of the min...

A district court dismissed an insurance company's CERCLA §§107 and 112 claim for response costs incurred by one of its policy holders seeking to redevelop the site of a former aerospace manufacturing facility. Because insurance payments made pursuant to a contractual obligation are not "respo...

A Michigan appellate court affirmed a lower court decision that res judicata bars a landowner's CERCLA, tort, and state law actions against a neighboring gasoline station for response costs and other monetary damages. The property owner originally filed suit in 1995, but the case was settled...

A California court ordered the California Air Resources Board to set aside its "functional equivalent document" and scoping plan to reduce greenhouse gases as it relates to cap and trade. The court ruled that the board inadequately described and analyzed project alternatives in violation of the...

A bankruptcy court held that a property owner's CERCLA and state environmental law claims against the prior property owner are not "core" claims and, thus, fall outside the jurisdiction of the owner's Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. The owner's CERCLA, New Jersey Spill Act, and New Jersey Jo...

A district court approved two consent decrees settling Colorado's claims for natural resource damages against two waste companies and the city and county of Denver in connection with the Lowry Landfill Superfund site. The settlement, which requires the performing parties to each pay $500,000...

A district court dismissed a property owner's negligence and mutual mistake claims against the former owner, as well as its request to rescind the purchase agreement, due to contamination. A shopping center sold the site to a business entity which then assigned the property to the current owner...

A district court, on motions for reconsideration and for leave to amend counterclaims, held that a gas company may seek recovery costs under CERCLA and the Michigan Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act against the plaintiffs in the case. The plaintiffs seek recovery of costs they ...

The Eleventh Circuit granted EPA's petition for a writ of mandamus to substitute the appearance of the EPA Assistant Administrator for Water for the appearance of the EPA Administrator at a hearing about compliance by the Agency with orders entered by the district court that concerned pollut...

The Tenth Circuit upheld the dismissal of an environmental group's CAA citizen suit against a power company alleging that it was attempting to build a coal-fired power plant with an invalid PSD permit. The permit provided that if construction did not commence by May 29, 2005, or if construction...