Disaster Law

A Run of Bad Luck

A Brookings report, The Year that Shook the Rich: A Review of Natural Disasters in 2011, points out that 2011 was the worst year in history in terms of costly natural disasters: 2011 was the most expensive year in terms of disaster losses in history, mostly because of a spate of disasters affecting developed countries. …

CONTINUE READING

Adapting to Increased Flood Risk in the Midwest

Here is a blog post about adapting to increased flood risk.  I wrote it after reading this news release.    This is the “classic adaptation two-step”.    In the first step of the dance, climate scientists identify location specific climate trends.  In this case, the RMCO research documents 50 year trends in increased flood risk …

CONTINUE READING

The NRC Ducks the Hard Questions

As Fukushima revealed, the Japanese nuclear industry had a very cozy relationship with regulators.  That kind of coziness is not unheard of in the U.S. context, either. After the Three Mile Island accident, Congress divided the responsibilities of the Atomic Energy Commission, giving its mandate to promote nuclear power to DOE and its regulatory authority …

CONTINUE READING

Supreme Court Grants Review in Takings/Flooding Case

The U.S. Supreme Court has granted review in what will be the first environmental case of its next (2012-13) Term: Arkansas Game & Fish Commission v. United States, No. 11-597. The ultimate question is whether the federal government is liable for millions of dollars in damages for flooding a 23,000-acre wildlife management area owned by the State …

CONTINUE READING

The Supreme Court Strikes Down the Clean Air Act

Not, not really.  Not yet. Dan is a much more generous person than I am, and so it should be unsurprising that he believes that the Affordable Care Act cases do not threaten environmental law.  I respectfully dissent. The Affordable Care Act seeks to establish laws for the health insurance industry — an industry that …

CONTINUE READING

Deep Waters

Dean Rowan pointed me to a nifty interactive site dealing with sea level change.  It covers the entire coastal U.S.  You simply put in the name or zip code of the place your interested in, along with the amount of sea level rise (1-10 feet).  You get a map of what parts of the city …

CONTINUE READING

Going Beyond the “Design-Basis Event”

A conventional approach to safety is based on the concept of design events.  A building code might say, for example, that a building should be able to survive a 7.0 earthquake.  This approach has been basic to the regulation of nuclear reactors.  As the interim report of the post-Fukushima NRC task force explains: [The regulation[ …

CONTINUE READING

Seismic Uncertainty

What happened last March 11 wasn’t supposed to be possible. The seismic hazard maps didn’t entertain the idea of a 9.0 magnitude earthquake off the Tohoku coast of Japan. But the Earth paid no heed to scientific orthodoxy. A massive slab of the planet’s crust lurched 180 feet to the east. It rose about 15 …

CONTINUE READING

BP Reaches Partial Settlement in Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Litigation

Late Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Carl Barbier announced a legal settlement between British Petroleum and thousands of individuals and businesses that had sued BP for damages arising out of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. According to a New York Times report, BP has agreed to pay $7.8 billion …

CONTINUE READING

Court to Feds: “Pay Up for Katrina Damage”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has upheld a district court ruling that the federal government is liable for damage from the Katrina storm surge that went up the MRGO canal into the city.  As I read the opinion, it is limited in three ways.  First, it is crucial that MRGO — …

CONTINUE READING

TRENDING