A Georgia court vacated a state air pollution permit allowing an energy company to construct and operate a 1,200 megawatt coal-fired power plant. Because there was no effort to identify, evaluate, or apply available technologies that would control carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and because the perm...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed an individual's 10-year sentence for starting nine wildland fires on National Forest Service land. The lower court did not err in calculating the advisory sentencing guidelines range when it included fire suppression costs in the loss calculation, thereby resulting in an e...

A California appellate court held that while the State Aeronautics Act does not compel a county to allow continued operation of an airport, its closure constitutes a "project" under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The State Aeronautics Act focuses on safety standards and the control...

A district court held that under Oregon law, a pollution exclusion clause bars coverage for unintended water contamination stemming from a company's intentional discharge of thorium into a city sewer system. The company thought that natural forces would dissipate the waste rendering it harmless. The...

The First Circuit remanded landowners' nuisance, misrepresentation, and civil conspiracy claims against an automobile distributor to the Massachusetts courts. The landowners filed suit in Massachusetts state court asserting claims against the distributor based on its operation of a rail line and dis...

The First Circuit affirmed a lower court's entry of a consent decree allocating certain responsibilities among a city, the state of Maine, and a telecommunications company for the cleanup of a contaminated river bed in Maine under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability...

A Georgia appellate court affirmed a lower court decision dismissing a county's contribution claim against a crematory under the state's hazardous waste law. The "corrective action" referenced in the Hazardous Site Response Act does not contemplate environmental cleanup efforts undertaken independen...

An Ohio appellate court held that the sudden and accidental exceptions to pollution exclusion clauses contained in an aerospace manufacturing company's excess commercial insurance policies provide coverage for gradual releases of pollutants if the resulting damage is indivisible from the sudden and ...

The Supreme Court of Florida held that the state's environmental agency must pay a judgment entered against it for breaching a contract with a private company. Under the contract, the company agreed to finance, construct, and operate 143 vacation cabins and associated concessions in eight state park...

The Supreme Court of California invalidated a local agency's countywide property assessment intended to fund a program to acquire, improve, and maintain open space lands. The court first ruled that courts should exercise their independent judgment in reviewing whether assessments that local agencies...