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Law and the Environment

Our blog provides perspective on developments in environmental law and policy - which developments may matter to you, and how and why they matter. Whether you are a manufacturer or a power plant developer, a renewable energy developer or hoping to be a renewable energy consumer, this blog offers commentary on current issues that are important to your business.

Superfund Reform, Part 2:  Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due
Blog May 23, 2017
Last week, I offered less than fulsome praise of EPA Administrator Pruitt's announcement that he was taking control of remedial decisions for big Superfund sites.  Now, he's followed up with a memorandum announcing establishment of a task force to look at ways to reform Superfund implementation.  While he's still plainly wrong in putting Superfund “at the center of the agency's core mission,” I have to confess that I think he otherwise has pretty much hit a home run with the latest……
Complaints Are Not Totally Meaningless:  A CERCLA Plaintiff Must Allege Disposal Against a Former Owner
Blog March 04, 2016
I know it may surprise some litigators, but occasionally the allegations in a complaint do matter.  In Garrett Day v. International Paper, the Court dismissed CERCLA claims brought by the current owner of a former paper mill located in Dayton, Ohio, against alleged former owners.  The opinion covers a lot of issues, but the most important is the distinction between “release” and “disposal” under CERCLA…
Is Superfund a Machine for Manufacturing Tea Party Members?
Blog August 21, 2015
A group of PRPs received an oversight cost bill pursuant to a CERCLA consent decree.  (The following details are intentionally vague to protect both the innocent and the guilty.)  The bill was for several hundred thousand dollars.  During the year covered by the bill, the PRPs spent no money cleaning up the area of the site covered by the invoice.  They spent little or no money monitoring the area of the site covered by the invoice…
Superfund Rant For a New Congress
Blog November 12, 2014
So the new Congress will be controlled by the GOP.  The House and Senate will consider various bills to rein in EPA authority.  Here's one relatively modest suggestion for congressional consideration:  amend CERCLA to limit EPA's authority to recover oversight costs. How many of us in the private sector have been in meetings with EPA where EPA had more technical people in attendance than the PRPs who were performing the remedy?…
What Response Costs Are Necessary Under CERCLA
Blog April 24, 2013
In a post last year, I discussed what I I thought was the dubious dismissal of  a CERCLA cost recovery action in Stratford Holding, LLC v. Fog Cap Retail Investors LLC.   That case involved a holding that the costs of  investigating the presence of solvents in the groundwater above regulatory standards were not   necessary response costs because the the state had declined to list the site on its Hazardous Sites Inventory…

ABOUT

In today’s fast changing world, almost all of us get our news – including our news about developments in environmental law and policy – electronically. This blog is not intended to be a substitute for the BNA™, or Greenwire™, or Google™, although we do hope that we will be able on occasion to let you know about issues that haven’t yet come to your attention.

What we really want to accomplish is to be able to provide some perspective on those developments. We’ll try to tell you which developments may matter to you. And why they matter. And how they matter. Whether you are a manufacturer or a power plant developer, whether you are a renewable energy developer or hoping to be a renewable energy consumer, whether you are a municipality or public agency or university, we want to comment on current issues in a way that is useful to you in your business.

Frankly, this blog also provides us with the opportunity to introduce you to Foley Hoag’s Environmental Practice Group. Our practice has been New England’s preeminent environmental practice for the past twenty years. We have the depth and capacity to handle the wide array of environmental issues that can arise in the course of your business. We will work with you to resolve any environmental issues that must be addressed in order for you to achieve your business goals – from permitting new projects to cost-effective cleanup of urban Brownfields properties to implementation of cost-effective due diligence in the support of acquisitions to navigating the emerging world of climate change regulations.

We will also assist you in the defense and prosecution of environmental litigation. As a result of our service to our clients, we have attained a national reputation in environmental matters. Our lawyers have built an impressive record resolving environmental disputes at the negotiating table and in the courtroom, and a number of our cases have produced precedents of national importance.

The scope of this blog will be commensurate with the scope of our practice. We’ll cover climate change, renewable energy, hazardous and solid waste, clean air and water, sustainability and green design. You name it, if it’s got an acronym attached to it, we’ll cover it.

As the headline indicates, we want to inform, update, comment, and discuss. In other words, while we’re going to enjoy posting, we’ll enjoy the blog more – and its usefulness will increase – if we hear from you also. Please comment on the blog entries. Let us know about developments we missed or implications of our discussions that we did not consider.

We look forward to the conversation.