In late April, in the ongoing case Ramirez v. Exxon Mobil Corp., et al., Exxon urged a Texas federal court to deny class certification to investors alleging the company withheld knowledge of climate change costs and misrepresented those costs publicly. Exxon is arguing that the alleged misrepresentations had no significant impact on the share price of the company’s stock and therefore the plaintiffs should be denied class certification because there […]

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In May 2017, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt formed a Superfund Task Force with the goal to streamline and improve the Superfund program. On August 10, 2017, the new Superfund task force provided recommendations on cleaning up sites currently on the NPL in an expedited manner. The task force is cross populated with representatives from the Office of Land and Emergency Management and the Office of Enforcement and […]

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On the heels of new Proposition 65 “safe harbor” warning regulations adopted last year by the state, which will impose new and more stringent warning requirements on California businesses beginning August 2018, new legislation has been introduced that, if passed, may help level the playing field for businesses frustrated by the peculiarities of this law.  In particular, the new bill (AB 1583) is designed to improve transparency and reduce litigation […]

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A unanimous three-judge Ninth Circuit panel ruled that the Department of Interior (“DOI”) and the Bureau of Reclamation (“Bureau”) had both the right and the obligation to release water to preserve a Native American fishing ground and prevent salmon die-off downstream.  Central to this case is the balancing act between Congressional goals to maintain and protect fisheries (environmental objectives) and the state-wide need for water (commercial objectives).  Two congressional acts, […]

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