32 Years of Environmental Reporting for serious Environmental Professionals
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Public Lands For The People, Inc. v. USDA
32 Years of Environmental Reporting for serious Environmental Professionals
Monday, September 24, 2012
Native Village Of Kivalina v. ExxonMobil Corp.
Kivalina alleges that massive greenhouse gas emissions emitted by the Energy Producers have resulted in global warming, which, in turn, has severely eroded the land where the City of Kivalina sits and threatens it with imminent destruction. Kivalina seeks damages under a Federal common law claim of public nuisance. The Appeals Court summarizes its position saying, "The question before us is whether the Clean Air Act, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) action that the Act authorizes, displaces Kivalina's claims. We hold that it does."
32 Years of Environmental Reporting for serious Environmental Professionals
Native Ecosystems Council v. Weldon (Forest Service)
32 Years of Environmental Reporting for serious Environmental Professionals
Wolfsen Land & Cattle Co. v. Pacific Coast Federation
The Appeals Court indicates, "The government had released the water in accordance with a consent order entered by a district court and expressly approved by Congress. The consent order was the result of environmental litigation pursued over a number of years by certain groups interested in the ecological fate of the river. After the present lawsuit was filed, two of these groups moved to intervene as of right, arguing that this case implicated their interests. The Court of Federal Claims denied their motion, finding that the groups' interests were sufficiently aligned with the government's as to create no foundation for intervention. Wolfsen Land & Cattle Co. v. United States, 98 Fed. Cl. 507 (May 24, 2011) (Fed. Cl. Op.). We affirm."
The case background started in 1942, when the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation dammed the upper San Joaquin River near Friant, California. Friant Dam, which still operates today, generates electricity and collects water for agriculture. But it also caused portions of the river below to dry up, leading to the extermination of Chinook salmon and other species from areas they had previously occupied, as well as other ecological consequences.
In 1988, a group of plaintiffs sued the federal government over the dam's operation. The Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations and the Natural Resources Defense Council (collectively, PCFFA) were among them. They claimed that the dam's operation contravened various state and Federal environmental protection laws. For the next eighteen years, the parties litigated in the district court for the Eastern District of California. In 2006, they finally reached a settlement and releases have continued since, in accordance with the Litigation Settlement and the Settlement Act.
32 Years of Environmental Reporting for serious Environmental Professionals
Friday, September 21, 2012
Earth Island Institute v. U.S. Forest Service
32 Years of Environmental Reporting for serious Environmental Professional
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Christopher Van Hollen, Jr. v. FEC
32 Years of Environmental Reporting for serious Environmental Professionals
U.S. v. Maury
The Defendants appealed from the jury's verdict, raising a litany of issues relating to pre-trial discovery, the District Court's handling of the trial itself, the propriety of certain jury instructions, and the District Court's sentencing determinations. The Appeals Court said, ". . .in light of the District Court's fine handling of these extraordinarily complicated proceedings, we will affirm the final judgments of conviction and sentence in this case."
Without getting into all of the details in this lengthy 83-page decision, following the jury verdicts, the Defendants filed an omnibus post-trial brief that raised a multitude of challenges to the jury's verdicts and to the District Court's handling of the case. In August 2007, the District Court ruled on the Defendants' post-trial motions, rejecting the majority of those challenges, but granting Rule 29 judgments of acquittal for insufficient evidence on the following: (1) one false statement charge against Faubert and the Company, for the jury's failure to reach a verdict (Count 2); (2) one CWA charge against Davidson and the Company, concerning an alleged unlawful discharge of wastewater in September 1999 (Count 21); and (3) one CWA charge against Maury and the Company concerning an alleged unlawful discharge of wastewater in October 1999. The Court denied the Rule 29 motions as to all other counts of conviction.
The District Court held sentencing hearings in April 2009. It sentenced Prisque to 70 months' imprisonment, Faubert to 41 months' imprisonment, Maury to 30 months' imprisonment, and Davidson to 6 months' imprisonment. As for the Company, the Court opted to apply the Alternative Fines Act (the AFA), 18 U.S.C. § 3571(c)(1), rather than the CWA and CAA, in imposing criminal penalties. Applying the AFA, the Court fined the Company the maximum penalty of $500,000 per violation on Count 1 (conspiracy), Counts 8-11 (obstruction), Counts 12-16 (CWA -- cement pit discharge), Counts 28-32 (CWA -- Number Four Pit discharge), and Count 34 (CAA) for a total fine of $8 million dollars. It also sentenced the Company to 4 years' probation, with a court-ordered monitor to ensure regulatory compliance going forward.
32 Years of Environmental Reporting for serious Environmental Professionals
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Textileather Corporation v. GenCorp Inc.
The Appeals Court ruled that, "OEPA was not a party to the APA, so it fairly falls under the common meaning of 'third person. . . we reverse the district court's decision granting summary judgment to GenCorp and instruct the district court to enter summary judgment in favor of Textileather on the legal question of whether the retained liabilities section applies. We remand this case to the district court for proceedings to determine the appropriate allocation of costs and damages under the terms of that provision. . . the district court properly concluded that the allocation and assumption of liability provisions apply to CERCLA claims as well. GenCorp retained only those CERCLA liabilities covered by Sections 9.1.1 and 9.1.2."
32 Years of Environmental Reporting for serious Environmental Professionals
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Pacific Coast Federation v. Blank (Commerce Dept.)
32 Years of Environmental Reporting for serious Environmental Professionals
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Colorado Department Of Public Health v. United States
32 Years of Environmental Reporting for serious Environmental Professionals
Impact Energy Resources, LLC v. Salazar
32 Years of Environmental Reporting for serious Environmental Professionals
Scott Timber Co. v. United States
32 Years of Environmental Reporting for serious Environmental Professionals
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Los Alamos Study Group v. Department of Energy
32 Years of Environmental Reporting for serious Environmental Professionals
Reino De España v. American Bureau Of Shipping
32 Years of Environmental Reporting for serious Environmental Professionals