A district court granted an oil company's motion for a temporary restraining order barring environmental activists from entering a 1,000 meter "safety zone" around three drilling vessels in the U.S. exclusive economic zone. The company alleged that Greenpeace USA is acting in concert with Greenpeace...

A district court held that a power company may seek contribution for some of the cleanup costs it incurred at a site adjacent to Lake Superior in Ashland, Wisconsin. The company's CERCLA §113 contribution claims stemming from a 2003 consent decree, and all its §107 cost recovery claims, are time-b...

The Ninth Circuit held that in allocating liability to a nonsettling defendant in a CERCLA contribution action, a district court has discretion to determine the most equitable method of accounting for settlements between private parties. Agreeing with the First Circuit and declining to follow the re...

The Fourth Circuit held that a public utility that sold used PCB-containing electrical transformers in the 1980s to a company for reconditioning and resale should not be held liable under CERCLA as an arranger. EPA added the site to the NPL in the mid-2000s, and the current owners of the site bore m...

New York's highest court refused to extend hydraulic fracturing leases entered into between energy companies and landowners. The leases contained a "force majeure" clause, excusing the parties from nonperformance due to events outside their control, as well as "habendum clauses," establishing the pr...

The U.S. Supreme Court held that mere knowledge of continuing spills and leaks is insufficient grounds for holding a company liable as an arranger under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). Under the plain language of CERCLA §107(a)(3), an entity may q...

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 ...

An Ohio court struck down a city's ban on drilling new oil and gas wells within its jurisdiction. On the one hand, the ban is a clear exercise of the city's police power; by attempting to ban oil and gas drilling, the city is trying to protect the public health and general welfare. But the ban is in...

The D.C. Circuit upheld DOI's five-year plan for oil and gas leases on the outer continental shelf (OCS). A nonprofit group argued that the 2012-2017 leasing schedule violated §18(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which governs how DOI is to balance competing economic, social, and enviro...

The D.C. Circuit upheld FERC's approval of a cost-pooling agreement among Trans Alaska Pipeline System oil carriers that allocates most fixed costs on the basis of each carrier's share of combined interstate and intrastate utilization of the 800-mile pipeline. Two carriers that only ship oil within ...