A district court granted in part and denied in part motions to dismiss property owners' CERCLA contribution claims against a company for contamination stemming from a manufactured gas plant that the company's predecessor operated from the 1830s until the early 1900s. In 2010, some of the property ow...
A district court remanded to state court a Louisiana parish's lawsuit against 19 oil and gas companies for alleged environmental damages stemming from the companies' exploration, production, and transportation activities. The parish claims these operations were conducted in violation of the State an...
A California appellate court held that the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) failed to adequately consider greenhouse gas emissions impacts in violation of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) during its preparation of its 2050 regional transportation plan. A lower court ruled...
A New Jersey appellate court held that the state environmental agency exceeded its authority when it seized control of a privately owned landfill under an emergency order intended to abate an alleged imminent threat to the environment arising from continued emissions of hydrogen sulfide. The order e...
A Washington State appellate court held that a county ordinance banning the land application of the most common class of biosolids is unconstitutional. The state' s biosolids program was created in 1992 to facilitate and encourage recycling, rather than disposal, of sewage waste, and the state's env...
A district court approved a $5.15 billion settlement agreement—the largest such recovery in American history—resolving two lawsuits in which a spin-off company and the U.S. government asserted fraudulent transfer and other claims against an energy company and its parent. In 2006, the energy comp...
A California appellate court held that San Diego County's adoption of a climate action plan violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Pursuant to the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, the county issued a program environmental impact report (PEIR) and adopted a number o...
A district court, on motions for partial summary judgment, dismissed a property owner's CERCLA claims against a lessee who subleased the property to a dry cleaner, who then allowed perchloroethylene to be released into groundwater. The owner sought contribution from the lessee for past and future en...
A district court denied a manufacturing company's motion to dismiss a landowner's state law claims against it for breach of contract and for waste, but granted the company's motion to dismiss the landowner's claims for cleanup costs under CERCLA and state law. Since 1972, the landowner has leased th...
The Sixth Circuit held that a Florida utility's lawsuit to recover cleanup costs it has incurred in connection with the release of hazardous substances at two manufactured gas plant sites is time barred under CERCLA. As a former owner of the site, the utility is a PRP even though it did not release ...