Of Smart Meters, San Bruno, and Regulatory Action
When the Pacific Gas and Electric Company and California regulators confronted recent health and reliability concerns related to smart meters, they stumbled because of a failure to address these concerns upfront -- before committing billions to statewide meter conversion. The loss of public confidence in the aftermath of the tragic gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno stems from a similar failure. Whether or not PG&E should have done more to guard against such acc...
CONTINUE READINGBP spill lawsuit complaint and link to early analysis
Here's the complaint in the newly-filed lawsuit the United States filed against BP today, which I summarized earlier in this post. And NRDC's David Pettit has written an interesting blog post with some initial thoughts about timing and choice of defendants in the lawsuit....
CONTINUE READINGU.S. sues BP, eight other defendants for violations of Oil Pollution Act in Deepwater Horizon blowout
Eric Holder, the Attorney General of the United States, announced today that the U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit alleging that BP, Transocean, and seven other firms caused or contributed to the massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill earlier this year. The lawsuit seeks response costs, natural resource damages, and economic damages under the Oil Pollution Act, as well as civil penalties under the Clean Water Act. According to the government's media release:...
CONTINUE READINGOceans: the biggest loser from our international failure to address greenhouse gas emissions?
In this op-ed from Monday's Los Angeles Times, UC San Diego scientists Tony Haymet and Andrew Dickson succinctly and directly summarizes the threat that ocean acidification poses to our world, and plead for reductions in carbon emissions. (My colleagues have blogged about ocean acidification before, here and here among other places.) Unfortunately, as my colleague Cara Horowitz noted yesterday, those reductions aren't coming anytime soon. Because the ocean is a c...
CONTINUE READINGUCLA Law will host local government land use symposium on February 11
UCLA Law's Evan Frankel Environmental Law and Policy Program is hosting a symposium about local government land use law on February 11, 2011. This event, Local Agencies on the Cutting Edge - Emerging Challenges to Local Land Use Authority: Proposition 26, the Public Trust Doctrine, RLUIPA, and Takings Law, will focus on issues of practical importance to lawyers and policymakers who care about local governments' role in environmental and land-use regulation. The focus...
CONTINUE READINGState Dep’t: Legally binding emissions limits not happening “anytime soon”
I wasn't on the beach in Cancun at the latest international climate summit, but like lots of folks I followed its (pseudo) progress. It wrapped up on Saturday with a package of incremental agreements on important issues (LA Times has a good analysis here), but once again without getting far on the 10,000 gigaton question: Will the international community adopt, through this UN process, legally binding emissions limits for the world's largest emitters, including the US...
CONTINUE READINGThe Supreme Court and CERCLA
Following up on yesterday's post, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the trajectory of Supreme Court cases dealing with CERCLA liability. In the federal courts generally, CERCLA cases began slowly, with one in 1981 and 11 in 1982. The number of cases per year then built steadily until at peak of 356 cases in 1993. After the peak, the number slowly subsided to 155 in 2002, before rising again to a steady level of about 250 cases per year. Given the Su...
CONTINUE READINGThe (Somewhat Puzzling) Trajectory of CERCLA Litigation
I thought it might be interesting to see the general trajectory of CERCLA litigation over the years. The figures for reported court decisions are readily available on Westlaw. (I searched for CERCLA or Superfund by year.) Part of the trajectory makes sense, but part is puzzling. There's a clear pattern up through 2002 that's fairly easy to understand. CERCLA cases began slowly, with one in 1981 and 11 in 1982. The number of cases per year then builds steadily unti...
CONTINUE READINGA Glimpse of the Future at the Tokyo Airport
I was walking through the Tokyo airport yesterday and saw a little two-year-old girl with her parents. It occurred to me that, given life expectancies in developed countries like Japan, there was a very good chance that she would be around to see the end of the century. That will include, I hope, many good things -- but it will also include all of the climate changes for 2100. Maybe she will tell her grandchildren of a bygone day when the seas were lower, the storm...
CONTINUE READINGHappy Birthday, CERCLA!
Thirty years ago today, Congress enacted the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Clean-up and Liability Act (a/k/a CERCLA or Superfund). CERCLA's primary thrust is to create liability for cleanup of leaking waste disposal sites. The statute was Congress's response to a number of high profile incidents, including the Love Canal debacle, that increased public awareness of the issue of hazardous waste. CERCLA imposes liability on generators of waste as well as past an...
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