After settling with EPA and having its settlement upheld in court, a potentially responsible party (PRP) is free from liability to all other PRPs given notice of that proposed settlement under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act...
Federal Environmental Law
Recent Endangered Species Act Verdict Reinforces Traditional Legal Principles
Though the Endangered Species Act has very strong prohibitory language, in practice its bark is sometimes much worse than its bite. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit's recent decision in The Aranas Project v. Shaw, et al. has preserved the statute's...
New York State to Explore Offshore Wind Power
Historically a proud leader in environmental protection, New York State is poised to claim a new reason for that title: New York has emerged a leader in the field of renewable energy. According to the Energy Information Administration, New York now ranks fourth in the...
Yet Another Legal Challenge to the East 91st Street Marine Transfer Station Fails
A marine transfer station operated on the East River at 91st Street for nearly six decades, temporarily storing municipal waste along the East River before loading it onto barges for disposal outside of Manhattan. But in 2004, the New York City announced plans to...
EPA Authority to Regulate Greenhouse Gases Survives Supreme Court Scrutiny in UARG v. EPA
In environmental law, things aren't always what they seem at first blush. Hence, when the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA, 134 S. Ct. 1050 (2014) in June, both industry and EPA claimed victory. Given that the Court struck...
Obama Takes Strong Position on Marine Protection
The United States will soon be home to the largest protected area on the planet, at land or at sea: President Obama has announced his intent to preserve a 782,000-mile stretch of the central Pacific Ocean.The Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument was created...
Former Wolff-Alport Chemical Company is NYC’s Newest Federal Superfund Site
New Yorkers like to think their city is the biggest and baddest, and now there's another reason for those sobriquets: last month, the former Wolff-Alport Chemical Company site - less than 1,000 feet from a public middle school and a private day care center- earned the...
Largest Environmental Settlement in History Reached in Kerr-McGee Case
In a triumph of environmental responsibility and justice over corporate attempts to disclaim environmental liabilities, the former Kerr-McGee Corporation has been ordered to clean up after itself.Since its founding in 1929, Kerr-McGee engaged in a number of highly...
Expanded Clean Water Act Jurisdiction could be Coming ‘Round the River Bend
How easily can a significant expansion in jurisdiction be called just a "clarification" of existing jurisdiction? On April 21, 2014, the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers published a proposed rule that promises to...
Court Determines that All Remediation at a Superfund Site Constitutes One “Remedial Action”
How many remediation angels can dance on a single remediation pinhead? In the recent NL Industries v. ACF Industries ruling, a federal judge in the Western District of New York decided that, for the purposes of CERCLA cost recovery and declaratory judgment claims, all...