The Eleventh Circuit has determined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) does not have to withdraw from a partnership with Alabama that allows the state to issue permits under the Clean Water Act (CWA), even though environmental groups have claimed Alabama’s program has failed to comply with the federal law’s requirements over the years. Cahaba…
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A United States District Court Judge for the Northern District of California has reduced an $75 million punitive damages award against Monsanto Company to $20 million in the nation’s first federally-tried Roundup case. Hardeman v. Monsanto, 3:16-cv-00525 (N.D. Cal., July 15, 2019). In reducing the award, the Court stated Monsanto deserves to be punished, but…
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The D.C. Circuit has upheld an EPA rule that classifies as “recycled” certain hazardous material sent to a third-party reclamation facility and thus exempt from the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) regulations governing discarded waste. California Communities Against Toxics, et al., v. EPA, et al., No. 18-1163 (D.C. Cir., July 2, 2019). In this…
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The U.S. Supreme Court has granted a petition for writ of certiorari to review questions regarding clean-up activities required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (“CERCLA”). Atlantic Richfield Co. v. Christian, No. 17-1498. In the suit, Atlantic Richfield seeks to overturn a decision by the…
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A California jury has awarded a $2.055 billion verdict in favor of a California couple, finding Monsanto’s product Roundup likely caused the couple’s cancer. Pilliod v. Monsanto Co., Case No. RG-1786272 (Cal. Super. Ct., Alameda Division). This is Bayer AG’s third consecutive Roundup trial loss since mid-2018 in cases involving claims the product caused cancer….
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The Eighth Circuit for the U.S. Court of Appeals has upheld an $11 million judgment entered against two subsidiaries of Titan International (collectively “Titan”) by a lower court which ruled Titan had improperly sold contaminated buildings to avoid cleanup. United States v. Dico, Inc., No. 17-3462 (8th Circuit 2019). The Court’s holding affirms the lower…
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The United States Supreme Court has granted certiorari in County of Maui, HI v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund, et al., No. 18-260, a Ninth Circuit case, as to the question of whether the Clean Water Act (“CWA”) requires a permit when pollutants originate from a point source discharge, but are conveyed to navigable waters by a…
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On January 25, 2019, the Texas Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling reversing the lower court’s holding regarding an insurers’ obligation to pay a significant amount of legal defense costs that resulted from its liability in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. See Anadarko Petroleum Corp. v. Houston Casualty Co., No. 16-1013 (Tex. Jan. 25, 2019). The…
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The United States Supreme Court recently held that land may only be designated a “critical habitat” for an endangered species if that same land is first a “habitat” for an endangered species. In Weyerhaeuser Co. v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 139 S. Ct. 361 (2018), the Supreme Court evaluated the United States Fish and…
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The United States Supreme Court has asked the Solicitor General to weigh in on two petitions for writ of certiorari — one Fourth Circuit case, Upstate Forever v. Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P., 887 F.3d 637 (4th Cir. 2018), and the other a Ninth Circuit case, Hawai’i Wildlife Fund v. County of Maui, 886 F.3d…
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