Weekly Cases Update Volume 44, Issue 4

The cases listed below appear in the most recent issue of ELR's Weekly Update. For cases previously reported, please use the filter on the left.

Volume 44, Issue 6

ELR 2003112-15572, -15848(9th Cir., )

The Ninth Circuit affirmed two lower court decisions ordering an oil company to produce expert witness documents for use in a foreign proceeding concerning an environmental contamination dispute in Ecuador.

Keywords:
Testimony by experts, South America
ELR 2002812-35260(9th Cir., )

The Ninth Circuit held that shareholders may go forward with their lawsuit against an oil company for allegedly making false and misleading statements about the condition of Alaskan pipelines and the company's pipeline maintenance and leak detection practices prior to and in the wake of an o

Keywords:
Corporate Law
ELR 2002913-15277(9th Cir., )

The Ninth Circuit upheld the dismissal of activists' lawsuit challenging the construction of a 20-mile, high-speed rail project in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Keywords:
Feasible and prudent alternatives, Alternatives, §102(2)(E)
ELR 200345:12-cv-00127(W.D. Ky., )

A district court held that a group of PRPs in connection with a former hazardous waste incinerator in Kentucky may go forward with their CERCLA cost recovery and contribution claims against a group of companies that allegedly generated and/or transported hazardous waste to the site.

Keywords:
Claims not barred, Declaratory judgment, §113(g)(2), PRPs may bring suit, Settlements, §122
ELR 200331:00-1898(S.D.N.Y., )

A district court dismissed New Jersey's claims against an oil company for groundwater contamination stemming from the company's use and handling of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE). The state failed to allege that the company supplied gasoline at the site at issue.

Keywords:
Hazardous wastes & substances
ELR 20035SJC-11332(Mass., )

Massachusetts' highest court upheld the state's "priority habitat" regulations insofar as they allow the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife to designate priority habitat without affording landowners the procedural protections statutorily due to those owning prope

Keywords:
Regulation, Endangered Species, Land use
ELR 2003208-885(W.D. Pa., )

A district court rejected a group of mid-Atlantic states' claims that projects undertaken by an energy company at three of its coal-fired power plants in Pennsylvania violated the CAA's prevention of significant deterioration and new source performance standards requirements.

Keywords:
Violations, "Modification" construed, New source review
ELR 2003012-2060(D. Neb., )

A district court held that a Nebraska law passed in 2012 to expedite the approval of a new route for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline through the state is unconstitutional.

Keywords:
Energy (generally), Constitutional law
ELR 20036312902(Mich. Ct. App., )

A Michigan appellate court held that Mich. Admin. Rule 324.102(x), which defines the term “injection well,” does not include wells completed using hydraulic fracturing. Accordingly, "frack" wells are not subject to the environmental regulations applicable to injection wells.

Keywords:
Michigan, Hydraulic Fracturing

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