The U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) issued a landmark decision last week in Jam v. International Finance Corporation, ruling for the first time that the World Bank can be sued for environmental and health issues where its investments in foreign development projects are alleged to have caused harm to local communities. This decision could make it […]
San Francisco and Oakland have renewed their fight to try and make Big Oil pay for climate-change related infrastructure damage, asking a federal appeals court earlier this week to reconsider their previously dismissed lawsuits against five oil companies. San Francisco and Oakland argue that a federal judge wrongly kept their cases out of state court […]
A jury on Wednesday awarded $80 million in damages to a California man who blamed Roundup weed killer for his cancer. The six-person jury in San Francisco returned its verdict in favor of Edwin Hardeman, 70, who said he used Roundup products to treat poison oak, overgrowth and weeds on his San Francisco Bay Area […]
The below is from the ConocoPhillips Press Release HERE. HOUSTON – ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) today announced that an international arbitration Tribunal ruled Venezuela unlawfully expropriated ConocoPhillips’ significant oil investments in the Petrozuata and Hamaca heavy crude oil projects and the offshore Corocoro development project. According to an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) […]
In a joint statement released on Thursday, the White House, Department of Transportation, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that the Trump administration has ended negotiations with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) over vehicle fuel-efficiency standards. Until Thursday, the EPA, CARB, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had been engaged in talks […]
The below excerpt from Scotusblog can be found HERE. The Clean Water Act bars the discharge of any pollutant into “navigable waters” without a permit. In its lone grant on today’s order list, the Supreme Court agreed to decide whether a violation of the CWA occurs only when a pollutant is released directly into navigable […]
In a January 16, 2019 decision made public this past Wednesday, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) sustained Bristol Environmental Remediation Services, Inc.’s (“Bristol”) bid protest, ruling that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (“Corps”) unfairly rejected Bristol’s proposal for an environmental cleanup and munitions response contract. Despite presenting the cheapest proposal among the other […]
Colorado mineral owners filed a federal lawsuit against the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (the “COGCC”) this past Wednesday, asserting that the COGCC’s authority to allow companies to drill on objecting residents’ land is unconstitutional. Colorado Rising, the activist group backing the lawsuit, recently suffered defeat of its November ballot measure that would have […]
Butte County sued Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (“PG&E”) in California state court over the fire that ravaged the county and killed 86 people in November 2018. The complaint explains a history of leaks, fires, and explosions surrounding PG&E’s facilities going back to 1981. PG&E has been subject to fines, penalties, and convictions over prior […]
The California Supreme Court released its long-pending opinion in Sierra Club v. County of Fresno (No. S219783) on December 24, 2018. The County of Fresno certified an Environmental Impact Report for the 942-acre, 2,500 unit project known as Friant Ranch. Project opponents challenged the project on numerous grounds. The California Supreme Court granted review from […]
