The 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...
CONTINUE READINGFull Speed Ahead!
The D.C. Circuit rejected efforts to stay EPA's pending greenhouse gas regulations until the court decides the merits of the appeals. It could well take a year or more for the merits to be decided, so in the meantime EPA can move forward. The court order does not indicate any view on the merits of the cases, but the court clearly rejected the doomsday scenario painted by industry and the state of Texas: Petitioners have not satisfied the stringent standards required ...
CONTINUE READINGClarifying a Cloudy Situation
One of the biggest difficulties in climate models is posed by clouds. Modelers need to know what kinds of clouds will form, at what altitudes, and with what precipitation resulting. These turn out to be very hard to calculate, and scientists use heuristic approximations to fill the gaps. A new study suggests that on the whole, models are getting cloud behavior pretty much right, and that clouds probably cause a moderately positive feedback effect on climate, augmen...
CONTINUE READINGGoogle Earth Engine and Forest Offsets in California Cap-and-Trade
Last week, Google Labs released Google Earth Engine, an online platform for viewing and analyzing satellite imagery and data. Â The platform's strengths are ease of use for viewing images, collaboration tools, and use of Google's computing infrastructure to analyze the satellite data. Â Google intends to use the platform to, among other things, help developing countries track their forests in preparation for REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradat...
CONTINUE READINGCert in Connecticut v. AEP: Eight Comments
1) Well, Obama got what he wanted. And it's a good thing, too: by attempting to short-circuit public nuisance suits, he established his good faith on climate change and paved the way for bipartisan cooperation. 2) It is absurd to argue that a common-law tort claim runs afoul of the political question doctrine. I'm not an expert on it, but I know of no appellate opinion holding as much, and for a good reason, too: if a claim is committed to the political branches...
CONTINUE READINGU.S. Supreme Court to Hear Climate Change Nuisance Case
The 2010-2011 U.S. Supreme Court case promises to be a blockbuster one for environmental law.  The Court today announced that it had granted a petition for certiorari filed in AEP v. Connecticut (the lower court decision in the case is here).  The case, brought by  a number of states against the country's five larges utilities , argues that the greenhouse gases they emit are creating a public nuisance.  Jonathan has blogged about the case  several times, includingÂ...
CONTINUE READINGGMOs and German Constitutional Law
The German Constitutional Court has issued an opinion upholding severe restrictions on the use of genetically modified plants. Science reports: "With the possibility to deliberately make changes in the genome, genetic engineering influences the elementary structures of life," the court wrote. "The consequences of such interventions can be, if any, difficult to undo." The court seems to consider GM crops an unfinished experiment. "In view of science's still unfinished as...
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