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Author |
Published |
Section |
Into the Breach
DOE hasn't opened Yucca nuclear-waste dump, must pay millions for breach of contract |
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01 Oct 2007 |
News |
| Posted at 2:52 PM on 01 Oct 2007 As if the saga of Nevada's Yucca Mountain wasn't ridiculous enough, a court has ruled that the Department of Energy's failure to open the nuclear-waste repository on time will have a price tag of $116.5 million, payable to Xcel Energy for breach of contract. And just to remind you of the ridiculousness, in the words of Minnesota State Senator Ellen Anderson: &quo ... |
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| Topics: Department of Energy, energy, litigation, Nevada, news, nuclear power, politics, waste (all these topics) |
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Dimmockery
British citizen sues government over distribution of climate-change film to schools |
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28 Sep 2007 |
News |
| Posted at 2:09 PM on 28 Sep 2007 In July, a judge ruled that the British government's decision to send Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth documentary to 3,500 English secondary schools did not constitute political indoctrination of children. British citizen and fun-name owner Stewart Dimmock disagrees, and is suing his government to quash the dastardly distribution. Dimmock claims the "irredeemable&quo ... |
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| Topics: An Inconvenient Truth, climate, climate change skepticism, dimwittery, education, litigation, news, politics, United Kingdom (all these topics) |
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Fall From Grace
Charges reinstated against company that allegedly exposed small town to asbestos |
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21 Sep 2007 |
News |
| Posted at 1:56 PM on 21 Sep 2007 The long-running legal battle over whether chemical company W.R. Grace knowingly exposed thousands of residents of Libby, Mont., to asbestos has taken an upswing: an appeals court has reinstated environmental and conspiracy charges against the company, which were thrown out by a federal judge last year. Next stop, trial; if convicted, Grace could be fined up to $280 ... |
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| Topics: litigation, mining, Montana, news, toxics (all these topics) |
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EPA to Supreme Court: Take a hike!
EPA gives permit to new Utah coal plant; Waxman cries foul |
Brian Beutler |
19 Sep 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Given the opportunity last month to adhere to the Supreme Court's findings in the case of Massachusetts vs. EPA, the EPA chose instead to completely ignore the ruling and proceed as if the case had never been heard. It issued a permit to Deseret Power to construct a 110-megawatt coal-fired power unit at an existing power plant in Uintah County, Utah. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, today sent a letter t ... |
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| Topics: coal, energy, litigation, politics, US EPA, Utah (all these topics) |
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Fear to Tread
Alt-fuel industry recycles rubber tires, contributes to air pollution |
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18 Sep 2007 |
News |
| Posted at 12:12 PM on 18 Sep 2007 A decade-old industry that recycles old rubber tires into fuel is chipping away at the stockpile of 1 billion retired tires in the U.S. But the laudable recycling effort is balanced by a negative impact on air pollution, as the U.S. EPA's clean-air regulations for burning solid waste include a loophole loosening requirements for facilities that "recover energy." Now a r ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, litigation, news, politics, recycling, regulation, US EPA (all these topics) |
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Nuisance Review
Judge tosses out lawsuit brought by California against automakers |
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18 Sep 2007 |
News |
| Posted at 10:21 AM on 18 Sep 2007 Automakers gained an edge yesterday in the Big Auto vs. California debate, as a federal judge tossed out a lawsuit against the world's six largest auto companies brought by California Attorney General Jerry Brown. Brown had claimed that because of the harmful environmental effects of vehicles' greenhouse-gas emissions, the Big Six were running afoul of California's public nuisance ... |
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| Topics: Big Auto, California, cars, climate, greenhouse-gas emissions, litigation, news, politics, state politics (all these topics) |
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Gene Cool
DNA testing helps to settle claims of chemical exposure |
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17 Sep 2007 |
News |
| Posted at 12:46 PM on 17 Sep 2007 Think you've been exposed to toxic chemicals on the job? Hand over your hair. A new DNA testing technique can help verify or refute claims of workplace poisoning by exposing a healthy person's DNA to the chemical in question to see how the genes are affected, then comparing to the employee's DNA. It seems like nary a day goes by without someone suing their employer over chemical exposure, and unti ... |
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| Topics: innovation, litigation, news, toxics (all these topics) |
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Sass Is in Sessions
Judge rules against Big Auto, says states can regulate emissions from cars |
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12 Sep 2007 |
News |
| Posted at 11:11 AM on 12 Sep 2007 States should be allowed to restrict greenhouse-gas emissions from cars, and Big Auto should just deal, a federal judge ruled today. Right now, the only real way to curb the emissions is to improve gas mileage; when Vermont decided to adopt California's strict emissions rules, automakers sued, claiming that the state was illegally regulating fuel economy -- and that ma ... |
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| Topics: Big Auto, cars, climate, energy, fuel efficiency, greenhouse-gas emissions, litigation, news, politics, regulation, state politics, Vermont (all these topics) |
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Worm to Grow
Greens sue to speed up protections for giant earthworm |
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11 Sep 2007 |
News |
| Posted at 11:52 AM on 11 Sep 2007 Greens plan to sue the federal government in hopes of speeding up endangered-species protections for the Palouse earthworm, the largest and longest-lived earthworm in North America. It can grow up to a yard long, spits at attackers, and smells like flowers. We kid you not. source: Associated Press see also, in Gristmill: Ginormous earthworm discovered, may get federal protection < Previous ... |
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| Topics: litigation, news, wildlife (all these topics) |
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All In a Day's Work
EPA sued over ship emissions, smacked over 9/11 cleanup |
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06 Sep 2007 |
News |
| Posted at 9:08 AM on 06 Sep 2007 The Environmental "Protection" Agency faced two major slams yesterday, from east and west. In Washington, D.C., the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office issued a report scolding EPA for its post-9/11 cleanup efforts, saying the agency's approach to toxic indoor contamination in buildings near the site is misdirected and ignores New Yorkers' health concerns. The report & ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, Government Accountability Office, Hillary Clinton, litigation, news, politics, US EPA (all these topics) |
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Play It Again, Uncle Sam
Appeals court overturns ruling, allows Navy to test underwater sonar |
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04 Sep 2007 |
News |
| Posted at 4:23 PM on 04 Sep 2007 It's the controversy that keeps on controversing: The U.S. Navy wants to test underwater mid-frequency sonar. Marine advocates say such testing effs up whales and other marine mammals. Repeat. (Grist has been writing about this issue since 1999, and we have never reused a headline. Thank you.) Anyhoodle, here we go again: last month, a federal judge ordered the Navy to ... |
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| Topics: Department of Defense, litigation, news, oceans, wildlife (all these topics) |
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Flo Nays
Federal judge halts Navy sonar exercises off California coast |
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07 Aug 2007 |
Daily Grist |
| Flo Nays Federal judge halts Navy sonar exercises off California coast A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Navy to stop using mid-frequency active sonar in exercises off the Southern California coast through 2009. Noting that the Navy's own evaluation says the sonar exercises could disrupt marine mammal behavior in as many as 170,000 instances, Judge Florence-Marie Cooper fou ... |
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| Topics: California, Department of Defense, litigation, news, NRDC, oceans, wildlife (all these topics) |
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Protesters doth protest too much
Heathrow owners win climate-camp injunction |
Katharine Wroth |
06 Aug 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Last week in Daily Grist, we reported that BAA, the company that owns Heathrow Airport, had requested an injunction against protesters planning a weeklong Camp for Climate Action in mid-August. The original request was so badly worded that it sounded like 5 million people would be kept away from the airport, but a judge granted a narrower version today. The judge, while citing the risk that 'a terrorist group may use the disruption caused by the protesters to perpet ... |
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| Topics: England, environmental movement, litigation (all these topics) |
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Where enviros can make a real difference
Learn to look down the ballot --- waaaaaay down |
JMG |
01 Aug 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Here's a story that's all too common: Right-wing dominated court; likes to pat itself on the back for being a 'strict constructionalist' court that, regardless of its own justices' preferences, follows the commands of the legislature expressed in the plain words of the statutes. No 'judge-made law' here, just the power of the people expressed through their elected representatives. Except not. Michigan's Environmental Policy Act gave 'any person' the right to sue o ... |
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| Topics: elections, litigation, politics (all these topics) |
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Brit greenhouse-gas factories, now with extra fascism
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JMG |
29 Jul 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Nice. |
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| Topics: air travel, climate, litigation, United Kingdom (all these topics) |
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Swine By Us
Court rules against green groups, lets factory farms off the hook |
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19 Jul 2007 |
Daily Grist |
| Swine By Us Court rules against green groups, lets factory farms off the hook Some 2,600 livestock companies are participating in a sweet deal from the U.S. EPA. In exchange for paying a minimal fee and agreeing to participate in an air-quality data-collection program, factory farms can basically be exempt from Clean Air Act requirements for 30 months. When the swap was announced ... |
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| Topics: ag policy, agriculture, Big Ag, industrial ag, litigation, news, US EPA (all these topics) |
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Pretty Please, With Cuomo On Top
New York state sues ExxonMobil over oil spill foot-dragging |
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18 Jul 2007 |
Daily Grist |
| Pretty Please, With Cuomo On Top New York state sues ExxonMobil over oil spill foot-dragging A shot has been fired in the quiet oil-spill battle in Brooklyn, N.Y.'s Greenpoint neighborhood: the state has sued ExxonMobil to force the cleanup of the estimated 8 million gallons of oil and petroleum byproducts still underground after a 1950 explosion. The spill, larger than the Exxon Valdez deb ... |
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| Topics: Big Oil, business, litigation, New York, news, water pollution (all these topics) |
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Think They'll A-Peel?
Latin American banana farmers sue U.S. companies over pesticides |
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11 Jul 2007 |
Daily Grist |
| Think They'll A-Peel? Latin American banana farmers sue U.S. companies over pesticides A pesticide designed to eradicate worms from Latin American banana trees may have had a detrimental effect on workers' ... oh, how to put it ... bananas. At least 5,000 agricultural laborers from Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama have filed five lawsuits in the U.S., claiming that exposure to th ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, health, industrial ag, litigation, news (all these topics) |
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Alito Bit More Critter-Hating
Supreme Court sides with developers on Endangered Species Act case |
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26 Jun 2007 |
Daily Grist |
| Alito Bit More Critter-Hating Supreme Court sides with developers on Endangered Species Act case Like a tormented parent with two kids in a spelling bee, environmentalists watched in horror this week as the U.S. Supreme Court judged the relative heft of two federal eco-laws. The case in question pitted green groups against the National Association of Home Builders. At issue was whether the U.S. EPA co ... |
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| Topics: endangered species, litigation, news, sprawl, US EPA (all these topics) |
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'Strict constructionists'
Self-proclaimed conservatives often simply just like different outcomes |
JMG |
22 Jun 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Michigan has an important case up before a state Supreme Court known for two things: Making radical revisions to laws the Republican majority dislikes, and proclaiming its strict textualism in interpreting the law. In the case before the Supreme Court, attorneys for Nestle Waters North America have argued in opposition to citizens' rights under [the Michigan Environmental Protection Act], saying that citizens must be 'directly affected' by an environmental action to go to court ... |
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| Topics: litigation, Michigan, politics (all these topics) |
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Connecting land use and global warming
California takes the lead |
David Roberts |
06 Jun 2007 |
Gristmill |
| California is once again taking the lead: California Attorney General Jerry Brown has sued San Bernardino County, the largest in area in the contiguous USA and one of the fastest growing, for failing to account for greenhouse gases when updating its 25-year blueprint for growth. 'It's groundbreaking. California is just leading the way for other states and jurisdictions that will ultimately follow,' says Richard Frank of the Center for Environmental Law and Policy at ... |
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| Topics: California, climate, greenhouse-gas emissions, litigation, placemaking (all these topics) |
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I'll Be Back, Eh
Schwarzenegger visits Canada to talk tough on emissions |
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30 May 2007 |
Daily Grist |
| I'll Be Back, Eh Schwarzenegger visits Canada to talk tough on emissions It's hard to believe any country could be worse on climate than the U.S., but Canada seems to be making a run for it. Yesterday, Friends of the Earth Canada and Sierra Legal filed a lawsuit in federal court, alleging that their government is shirking its Kyoto Protocol pledge. "This government is not fre ... |
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| Topics: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Canada, climate, Kyoto Protocol, litigation, news (all these topics) |
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Ah ha
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David Roberts |
14 May 2007 |
Gristmill |
| California is suing the federal government over weak fuel-efficiency standards. No wonder the Bush administration made a big to-do of announcing its tepid alternative fuels plan today (even though nothing would happen with it until 2008). Rove's trying to capture the news cycle. (thanks LL) Update [2007-5-14 13:49:14 by David Roberts]: Pure coincidence!Q The event today about CAFE standards, when did that get added to the schedule? MR. SNOW: Today. I mean, we've be ... |
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| Topics: California, fuel efficiency, litigation, politics (all these topics) |
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Bush 'responding' to Supreme Court
Not exactly |
David Roberts |
14 May 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Wondering what to make of this? President Bush responded to a Supreme Court environmental ruling by settling on regulatory changes that don't need congressional approval, the White House said Monday. Bush is announcing the steps he is directing his administration to take in a Rose Garden appearance later Monday. Read on down a little bit: In his State of the Union address in January, Bush set a goal of reducing gas consumption by 20 percent over 10 years. Und ... |
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| Topics: Big Ag, Big Oil, energy, energy efficiency, George Bush, litigation (all these topics) |
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Clash With the Titan
Anti-dam activists target billionaire Warren Buffett |
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04 May 2007 |
Daily Grist |
| Clash With the Titan Anti-dam activists target billionaire Warren Buffett This weekend, activists are descending on Omaha, Neb., to push for removal of four Western dams they say are killing salmon and causing a health risk to humans. Their target: skillionaire Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway holding company owns PacifiCorp, the utility that owns the Klamath River dams. In addition to picketing Berkshire Hathaway's ... |
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| Topics: dams, energy, litigation, news (all these topics) |
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