A Washington appellate court upheld an administrative board decision invalidating the Department of Ecology's and a city's threshold determinations for two crude oil terminal development projects under the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA), but denied environmental groups' claim that additional ...

A district court granted a motion to reconsider its prior decision that a PRP established the divisibility defense and, therefore, should not be jointly and severally liable for cleanup costs at the Lower Fox River Superfund site in Wisconsin, and held that the PRP had not, in fact, established the ...

A New York appellate court held that residents may go forward with their personal injury and property damage claims against a city and various companies for failing to properly remediate toxic contamination at the Love Canal Superfund site and for allowing toxins to be released during a 2011 sewer p...

A North Carolina appellate court upheld the constitutionality of state legislation that withdrew a city's authority to own and operate its public water system and to instead transfer it to a sewer district. The law creates a new type of political subdivision, known as a metropolitan water and sewera...

The Supreme Court of New Hampshire upheld a $236 million jury award against an oil company for groundwater contamination. In 2003, New Hampshire sued several gasoline suppliers, refiners, and chemical manufacturers seeking damages for groundwater contamination allegedly caused by methyl tertiary but...

A district court granted in part and denied in part New York's motions to dismiss a company's counterclaims against it in the state's underlying CERCLA action for response costs. The state claimed that the Eleventh Amendment barred the company's counterclaims because the state has neither consented ...

A district court upheld Oregon's clean fuels program, which seeks to reduce lifecycle emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) from transportation fuels by 10% over a 10-year period. Trade associations argued that the program was unconstitutional because it discriminates against out-of-state commerce. Bu...

The Ninth Circuit held that California's commercial fishing fees for nonresidents violates the Privileges and Immunities Clause of the U.S. Constitution. California's commercial fishing license fees are significantly higher for out-of-state fishers than for residents. For example, California residen...