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 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 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, 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 D.C. Circuit denied a petition challenging a magnesium plant's inclusion on the NPL. EPA uses a hazard ranking system (HRS) to determine whether to place a site on the NPL. Petitioners argued that EPA erred in calculating the HRS score and that if these errors were corrected, the site's ...

The Second Circuit affirmed a lower court decision that the parent corporation of nine manufactured gas plants (MGPs) is not an "operator" of those plants for purposes of CERCLA liability. The current owners of the MGP sites filed suit against the parent corporation, seeking to recover costs th...

A district court held that a lumber company's CERCLA action against the former owner of the company's sawmill and plywood manufacturing plant for reimbursement of past and future cleanup costs associated with the site is not barred by contract. When the lumber company purchased the plant in 1993, th...

A district court, on motions for summary judgment, held that a property owner may go forward with its CERCLA claims against a printing company for environmental contamination stemming from the company's operations, but it dismissed the owner's RCRA claims against the company. The printing compa...

A district court modified its equitable allocation of costs under §113 of CERCLA and the New Jersey Spill Act in connection with a site contaminated with TCE and other hazardous substances. The court originally allocated 65% of costs to the plaintiffs, 32% to the defendants, and 3% to the federal g...

The D.C. Circuit denied a petition for review challenging EPA's decision granting California a waiver from federal preemption under the CAA that allows the state to implement its own regulations requiring automobile manufacturers to reduce fleet-average greenhouse gas emissions from new motor vehicl...