The court reverses a district court decision granting summary judgment in favor of two corporations in a Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) action brought by a paper manufacturers' association seeking contribution for costs incurred in the investigation an...
In Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC) v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Supreme Court narrowly upheld orders issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) pursuant to §§113(a)(5) and 167 of the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act), prohibiting construction of a new power generator unit at a mine in Northwest Alaska.
The Tenth Circuit vacated a lower court decision granting summary judgment in favor of a magnesium company on claims that its handling of waste violated RCRA Subtitle C. The company argued that EPA exempted the five wastes at issue from Subtitle C’s strictures in a prior interpretation of its ...
The D.C. Circuit remanded an EPA rule that retroactively altered allowances for controlling the production, import, and export of hydrochlorofluorocarbons that had been allowed under prior regulations. A 2003 rule allowed both inter-pollutant and intercompany transfers of allowances, but in the 2010...
A district court held that an environmental group's claims against an electric company for violating PSD requirements before making major modifications to one of its plants are time barred, but it stayed final entry of the judgment pending the ruling of the Seventh Circuit in a similar case. PSD obl...
The court holds that individuals' Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and state-law claims against a gasoline corporation that spilled 600,000 gallons of gasoline onto the individuals' property and a surrounding lake and creek are not barred because the state has not engaged in a Comprehen...
The court holds that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) guidelines for carrying out the certification of Waste Isolation Pilot Plant's (WIPP's) compliance with radioactive waste disposal regulations are specific enough to qualify as "criteria" under 40 C.F.R. Part 191. The court note...
The court holds that a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation that creates a 12-month grace period exempting transportation projects in nonattainment and maintenance areas from Clean Air Act (CAA) §176(c) is contrary to the plain meaning of the CAA. The court first holds that an envi...
The court holds that a nonsettling potentially responsible party (PRP) must pay a portion of past and future remediation costs incurred by settling PRPs at the Sullivan's Ledge site in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Relying on the jury's findings, the court first holds that the nonsettling party must p...
The court holds that a railroad company lessor is barred from recovering economic losses and property damages associated with hazardous waste contamination on its leased site. The court first holds that the lessor's claim for economic losses and property damages under the Minnesota Environmental Res...