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U.S. court reinstates emissions suit vs. utilities
Environmental |
2009/09/22 07:25
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A U.S. Appeals Court reinstated on Monday a 2004 lawsuit by eight states and the city of New York against five of the largest U.S. utilities over their carbon dioxide emissions. The lawsuit was dismissed in October 2005 by U.S. District Court Judge Loretta Preska, who said the issue was a political question for Congress or the President, not the judiciary. Monday's ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York said the judge "erred in dismissing two complaints on the ground that they presented non-justiciable political questions." The lawsuit against American Electric Power Co Inc, Southern Co, Xcel Energy Inc, Cinergy Corp and the Tennessee Valley Authority public power system, argued that greenhouse gas emissions from their plants were a public nuisance and would cause irreparable harm to property. The utilities are five of the largest carbon dioxide emitters in the United States. Around 40 percent of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions come from fossil-fueled power plants.
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Ship operator pleads guilty in SF Bay oil spill
Environmental |
2009/08/15 10:14
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The Hong Kong-based company that operates the cargo ship that caused a 2007 oil spill in San Francisco Bay pleaded guilty Thursday to criminal charges.
Fleet Management Ltd. pleaded guilty to charges of obstruction, making false statements and negligent discharge of oil, and agreed to pay a $10 million fine under a deal reached with prosecutors. A federal judge still must approve the deal. The Cosco Busan sideswiped the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge on a foggy morning on Nov. 7, 2007. The ship spilled 53,000 gallons of oil into the water, killing thousands of birds and other wildlife and fouling miles of shoreline. The ship's pilot, John Cota, was sentenced in July to 10 months in prison after pleading guilty to two misdemeanor charges. Company director Aga Nagarajan appeared in court Thursday with lawyer Marc Greenberg, who entered the guilty pleas. They declined comment outside court. U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston scheduled a Dec. 11 hearing to decide whether the $10 million is enough punishment. Court documents showed the company acknowledging its crew was poorly trained and the master failed to stop the pilot from leaving port in thick fog. The master admitted he could "suffer adverse personnel consequences" if he delayed departure, according to the court filing. |
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Court blocks road construction in national forests
Environmental |
2009/08/06 08:29
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| A federal appeals court Wednesday blocked road construction in at least 40 million acres of pristine national forests. The decision by a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reinstates most of a 2001 rule put in place by President Bill Clinton just before he left office that prohibited commercial logging, mining and other development on about 58 million acres of national forest in 38 states and Puerto Rico. A subsequent Bush administration rule had cleared the way for more commercial activity there. The latest ruling, issued in San Francisco, sides with several Western states and environmental groups that sued the Forest Service after it reversed the so-called "Roadless Rule" in 2005. But it is not the final word on roadless forests. A separate case is pending in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, where environmental groups are appealing a Wyoming district court decision repealing the Clinton roadless rule. "It's up and down like a yo-yo," said Tom Partin, president of the American Forest Resource Council, a timber industry group. "It seems to be bouncing from one court to the other." The Obama administration cited that legal uncertainty this spring in ordering a one-year moratorium on most road-building in national forests. |
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San Diego will seek lifting of seal removal order
Environmental |
2009/07/23 09:12
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The city of San Diego said Tuesday it will go to court to ask a state judge to lift an order requiring the immediate removal of a colony of federally protected harbor seals from a La Jolla cove.
The announcement by City Attorney Jan Goldsmith was the latest development in an emotional and yearslong battle over who should have exclusive use of the protected cove — children or seals — in the posh seaside neighborhood of La Jolla. On Monday, a San Diego Superior Court judge ordered the city to begin chasing away the creatures from the cove, called the Children's Pool, by Thursday or face heavy fines in order to comply with a 2005 ruling in a lawsuit brought by a disgruntled swimmer. The city said it would blast recordings of barking dogs to scare away the pesky pinnipeds at the cost of $688,000 a year. San Diego cannot use force because the seals are a federally protected marine species. But just hours later, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill that added a marine mammal park to the list of permissible uses for the Children's Pool — giving the city a legal tool that could allow the seals to stay put. |
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Court makes it harder to challenge forest rules
Environmental |
2009/03/04 05:51
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The Supreme Court has made it harder to challenge federal regulations governing timber sales and other policies in national forests.
In a 5-4 decision Tuesday, the court says environmental groups cannot pursue a lawsuit against forest regulations that limit public input when environmental impact on a U.S. Forest Service project is expected to be small.
The case concerned a proposal to salvage timber from 238 acres in the Sequoia National Forest in California. A fire in the summer of 2002 burned 150,000 acres. Even though the Forest Service withdrew the proposal, the federal appeals court in San Francisco upheld a nationwide injunction against the regulations. The government argued that a challenge to the regulations must be tied to a specific project and the court agreed in an opinion written by Justice Antonin Scalia. The case is Summers v. Earth Island Institute, 07-463. |
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EPA to regulate mercury from cement plants
Environmental |
2009/01/17 08:40
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| Federal regulators have settled a lawsuit with environmental activists and nine states over standards for mercury emissions from cement plants, the plaintiffs announced Friday. Earthjustice, an environmental law firm based in Washington, sued the Environmental Protection Agency in 2007 on behalf of activist groups. The firm said existing federal regulations that exempted older cement kilns failed to impose adequate mercury pollution controls. Nine states, including New York and Michigan, also joined the suit, contending the agency had not based its standards on the latest pollution control technology. About 150 kilns around the nation generate nearly 23,000 pounds of airborne mercury a year, according to Earthjustice. Mercury, a toxic metal that can damage the brain and nervous system, is generated from the raw materials and some fuels used in cement-making. The agency had issued mercury regulations for cement plants three years ago, but they applied only to kilns built after Dec. 2, 2005. Most operating kilns, however, were built earlier and were exempt. Under the settlement, the agency will propose a mercury rule for all plants by March 31 and make a final decision within a year. "EPA is carefully considering what an appropriate standard should be for mercury emissions from cement kilns," spokeswoman Cathy Milbourn said. |
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CA Sues to stop Bush's Butchering of Endagered Species Act
Environmental |
2009/01/02 09:16
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California's Attorney General went into Federal Court Tuesday in an effort to stop a midnight regulation by the Bush Administration that would exempt federal agencies from a key requirement of the Endangered Species Act, saying the move in the waning days of Bush's presidency usurps the power of Congress and is the most significant change to the act in 20 years.
"The Bush Administration is unlawfully trying to make major substantive and procedural revisions to the statute through the regulatory process. This is not something executive agencies are authorized to do. Only Congress can amend the statute" says Abraham Arredondo, a lawyer for the California Attorney General's Office.
The ESA mandated that federal agencies seek independent reviews from scientists on projects that might negatively affect endangered or threatened species.
The Department of the Interior and the Department of Commerce, however, proposed to eliminate this provision and on December 16th it was removed.
Federal agencies now decide for themselves whether mining, logging, and other projects will negatively affect threatened or endangered species. Attorney General Edmund Brown claims these agencies generally lack biological expertise and that they usually have incentive to conclude their projects won't hurt listed species.
Also, the Act no longer mandates that the effects of greenhouse gas emissions on listed species be considered in federal projects. Federal agencies no longer need to consider potential negative affects on species like the polar bear when approving coal-burning power plants or projects which contribute to greenhouse gasses.
Of the 1,327 plant and animal species on the national endangered and threatened species list, 310 of them are in California. The federal government owns millions of acres of land in California in the form of military bases, public lands, and federal water projects, among other things.
California has its own list of endangered species and the federal government must still follow the California Endangered Species Act when operating on California land.
The lawsuit draws attention to the increasing stagnancy of the federal Endangered Species Act. Robert Wayne, a Biology professor at UCLA, explained that it is now very difficult to add species to the federal endangered species list, which results in many species becoming extinct while still being considered for listing.
In 2004, the Washington Post wrote an article detailing the influence of the Bush administration on the ESA. It reported that 9.5 species a year were added to the endangered list under President Bush, compared with 65 a year under President Bill Clinton and 59 a year under President George H.W. Bush. The Paper also reported that the administration recalculated the economic costs of protecting critical habitats and also noted increased difficulty in listing new species.
The Federal ESA understands endangered species to be in danger of extinction within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range. Threatened species are animals and plants likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of their ranges.
Megan Acevedo is the Deputy Attorney General representing California. |
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Class action or a representative action is a form of lawsuit in which a large group of people collectively bring a claim to court and/or in which a class of defendants is being sued. This form of collective lawsuit originated in the United States and is still predominantly a U.S. phenomenon, at least the U.S. variant of it. In the United States federal courts, class actions are governed by Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule. Since 1938, many states have adopted rules similar to the FRCP. However, some states like California have civil procedure systems which deviate significantly from the federal rules; the California Codes provide for four separate types of class actions. As a result, there are two separate treatises devoted solely to the complex topic of California class actions. Some states, such as Virginia, do not provide for any class actions, while others, such as New York, limit the types of claims that may be brought as class actions. They can construct your law firm a brand new website, lawyer website templates and help you redesign your existing law firm site to secure your place in the internet. |
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