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Mealey's Pollution Liability

  • March 27, 2025

    Judge Denies Norfolk Southern’s Motion To Dismiss Securities Fraud Class Action

    ATLANTA — Norfolk Southern Corp. and its principal’s motion to dismiss investors’ securities fraud class action relating to the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, was denied by a federal judge in Ohio, who found that the investors’ allegations raised an “overwhelming” inference of scienter.

  • March 26, 2025

    U.S. Supreme Court Hears Venue Arguments In Cross-State Ozone Pollution Cases

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — During oral arguments in two consolidated cases heard March 25 by the U.S. Supreme Court, an attorney representing Oklahoma and Utah contended that according to a specific part of the Clean Air Act (CAA), challenges to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s disapproval of state implementation plans for new air quality standards are “locally or regionally applicable,” but the EPA argued that the statute says otherwise.

  • March 25, 2025

    EPA, Refineries Debate Proper Venue For CAA Fuel Standards Rule In High Court  

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 25 heard competing arguments as to whether the venue for several small oil refineries' challenges to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s denial of requests for exemption from the Clean Air Act’s (CAA’s) Renewable Fuels Standards (RFS) program lies exclusively in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals because the agency's denial actions are “nationally applicable” or “based on a determination of nationwide scope or effect.”

  • March 25, 2025

    U.S. To Pay $250K To Aerospace Company In California Airport Pollution Dispute

    LOS ANGELES — Through a $250,000 consent decree filed in California federal court, the United States will compensate an aerospace company “for a fair portion” of costs it incurred under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act responding to contamination from hazardous substances it allegedly released at a Los Angeles County airport.

  • March 24, 2025

    Divided Arguments Sought For Respondents In High Court Emissions Standards Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Acting Solicitor General Sarah M. Harris want the U.S. Supreme Court to divide the arguments of the federal agency and a group of state and local government respondents led by California in a dispute over whether the EPA has the authority to waive new Clean Air Act (CAA) standards for automobile emissions as they apply to California.

  • March 21, 2025

    Conn. Panel Says Owner Who Violated CWA By Filling Wetlands Liable For Remediation

    NEW YORK — A Connecticut landowner who violated the Clean Water Act (CWA) by filling in protected wetlands on his property without a permit and not adhering to warnings and notices from various federal agencies is liable for remediation of the property, the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled.

  • March 19, 2025

    D.C. Judge Halts EPA Grant Freeze, Consolidates Clean Energy Nonprofits’ Cases

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia partially granted a motion for a temporary restraining order on March 18 barring a bank tasked with administering federal grant awards from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from freezing funds promised to three nonprofit financial organizations that leverage money for clean energy projects, in three recently consolidated cases.

  • March 19, 2025

    Exxon Asks High Court To Review Splintered 5th Circuit’s $14M CAA Penalty Ruling

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — ExxonMobil Corp. wants the U.S. Supreme Court to review an order issued by a “fractured” en banc Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that required it to pay a $14.25 million penalty for air pollution incidents at a Texas facility that “were never traced to any legal violations” and reconsider and overrule a ruling in a previous high court case that said available civil penalties paid to the government can satisfy redressability stipulations “for private, citizen-suit plaintiffs.”

  • March 18, 2025

    Energy Company To Pay $8M, Perform Remediation For Post-Fracking CAA Violations

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — An energy company that was at the helm of an Ohio gas well during a post-fracking incident that resulted in a 20-day release of methane and other harmful substances will pay the United States $8 million in civil penalties and undergo a series of remediation efforts for alleged violations of the Clean Air Act pursuant to a consent decree signed by a federal judge in Ohio.

  • March 17, 2025

    N.J. PFAS Cleanup Decision Prompts Judge To Hit ‘Reset Button’ On Eve Of Trial

    TRENTON, N.J. — A federal judge in New Jersey has issued a memorandum order in which she states that she has hit the “reset button” on a per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) groundwater contamination case brought by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) against EIDP Inc., formerly E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co., and its affiliates because she “struggles to see a path forward to try this case as currently scheduled” in light of NJDEP’s decision to place DuPont’s Chambers Works site under Discretionary Direct Oversight on the eve of trial.

  • March 14, 2025

    Judge Says Environmental Group Lacks Standing In PFAS Water Contamination Case

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A federal judge in Tennessee has dismissed a lawsuit brought by an environmental advocacy group against a landfill operator related to water contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), concluding that the allegations for violations of federal laws governing clean water are “wholly past violations” and that the plaintiffs lack standing to bring their claims.

  • March 13, 2025

    EPA Announces Long List Of Actions To Review, Overhaul Environmental Regulations

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Administrator Lee Zeldin on March 12 announced more than 20 federal actions to reconsider, terminate, overhaul and restructure a laundry list of environmental regulations in a stated effort to lower living costs, revitalize the auto industry and return regulatory powers to the states.

  • March 13, 2025

    Motion To Alter Or Amend CERCLA Repayment Ruling Denied But New Trial Granted

    JOPLIN, Mo. —  A federal magistrate judge in Missouri denied a motion filed by the former owner and operator of a shuttered fertilizing plant to alter or amend a ruling that the Comprehensive Environmental, Response, Compensation, and Liability Act statute of limitations foreclosed a development company’s attempt to recoup costs associated with remediation efforts but granted a request to hold a new trial to determine whether the claims are barred by the statute of limitations.

  • March 13, 2025

    EPA Eyes Pending Case In Petition To High Court Over CAA Final Rule Venue Provision

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — While the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is asking the high court in a new petition to determine whether the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals is the proper venue to decide challenges to its decision to disapprove state implementation plans for new air quality standards under the Clean Air Act (CAA), the agency wants the high court to hold off on weighing in until after a decision is made in another similar pending case.

  • March 11, 2025

    High Court Will Not Hear Arguments Between States Over Energy Restrictions

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The majority of the U.S. Supreme Court on March 10 denied a motion filed by 19 states led by Alabama for leave to file a bill of complaint against California, Connecticut, Minnesota, New Jersey and Rhode Island that sought to bar the defendant states from imposing “a global carbon tax on traditional energy producers” through “state tort actions governed by state law in state court.”

  • March 10, 2025

    Clean Energy Nonprofit Files Complaint Against Bank, EPA For Grant Funding Freeze

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A nonprofit financial organization that leverages funding for clean energy projects says in a complaint filed March 8 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that the bank tasked with administering its federal grant awards from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the agency itself had “no legal basis” for denying requests to withdraw funds from its account after EPA officials announced the money was frozen pending an investigation into alleged mismanagement of the disbursements.

  • March 07, 2025

    Parties In U.S. Government’s Chloroprene Emissions Injury Case Stipulate Dismissal

    NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge in Louisiana has issued a minute entry indicating that the U.S. government and a chemical company that had been engaged in an injury lawsuit involving carcinogenic chloroprene emissions from neoprene manufacturing operations intend to file a stipulation of dismissal that has been agreed to by all parties.

  • March 06, 2025

    More Partial Class Settlements Reached Over Toxic PFAS In Georgia Drinking Water

    ROME, Ga. — Three more defendants in a Georgia federal court case with admitted involvement in contaminating groundwater with toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in northwest Georgia have agreed to contribute hundreds of thousands of dollars to a temporary drinking water fund through two proposed partial class action settlement agreements reached with a group of water subscribers and ratepayers.

  • March 06, 2025

    U.S. Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments In Texas Nuclear Waste Storage Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on March 5 in two consolidated cases in which the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and government contractor Interim Storage Partners LLC (ISP) are challenging the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ interpretation of the Atomic Energy Act (AEA) and elements of the Hobbs Act that the NRC used when it vacated approval of a license allowing interim storage of spent nuclear fuel at a planned facility in west Texas.

  • March 05, 2025

    Fuel Advocacy Groups Urge Supreme Court To Review Federal Officer Removal Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ignored the “extraordinary coordination” required to fuel a war effort and imposed too narrow a focus in determining that the creation of an administration office severed the connection between the government and conduct required for federal officer removal, amici curiae told the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • March 04, 2025

    Divided U.S. Supreme Court Rules CWA Exceeds EPA Authority In Permitting Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A divided U.S. Supreme Court on March 4 ruled that the Clean Water Act (CWA) exceeds the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to impose requirements that make a permittee responsible for the water quality in the body of water in which the permittee discharges pollutants, reversing and remanding a case involving a dispute over San Francisco’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit.

  • March 04, 2025

    COMMENTARY: Sustainability Recalibration: What Insurers And Policyholders Should Know About ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance Considerations) Under Trump 2.0, Part 1

    By Scott M. Seaman

  • March 04, 2025

    D.C. Circuit Grants EPA’s Motion For Abeyance In PFAS CERCLA Designation Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted a motion filed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to hold in abeyance for 60 days a case in which the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and six trade associations petitioned for review of a final rule promulgated by the agency that added two widely used per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to the list of hazardous substances covered by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act.

  • March 03, 2025

    New York Nonprofit Groups Sue USDA Over Climate Change Website Content ‘Purge’

    FOLEY SQUARE, N.Y. — Several New York nonprofit organizations sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture over the “unlawful purge” of climate-related content from its websites, citing violations of the Paperwork Reduction, Administrative Procedure and Freedom of Information acts.

  • March 03, 2025

    Ore. Magistrate Judge: Bulk Of Residents’ Groundwater Contamination Claims Valid

    PENDLETON, Ore. — A federal magistrate judge in Oregon, in addressing motions to dismiss, issued findings and recommendation that a group of residents who sued the Port of Morrow and several agricultural companies pursuant to state law and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) for alleged contamination of groundwater in the Lower Umatilla Basin can pursue most, but not all, of their claims for relief.