On December 23, 2020, the federal government published its inflation-adjusted civil penalties for a variety of environmental statutes, including the Clean Air Act (CAA) and the Clean Water Act (CWA). Those $25,000 per day or...more
There have been five circuit court decisions in 2018 addressing the application of the Clean Water Act (CWA) to discharges reaching navigable waters through groundwater....more
In Sierra Club v. Virginia Electric & Power Company (“VEPCO”), the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed in part and reversed in part a district court decision finding VEPCO liable for unpermitted discharges to navigable...more
On August 17, the day after a federal judge in South Carolina invalidated the Trump administration’s suspension of the rule defining “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) under the Clean Water Act, a panel on the D.C. Circuit...more
Citgo Petroleum received a Valentine’s gift of sorts from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on February 14, in United States v. Citgo Petroleum Corporation. The Court affirmed an $81MM civil penalty assessed by the district...more
The Trump Administration has taken the position that the President not only has the power under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to unilaterally establish national monuments, but also the unfettered authority to reduce in size or...more
We have strange bedfellows, as business groups, states and environmentalists maneuver before the Supreme Court over the Obama Administration regulation defining “waters of the US” (“WOTUS”) under the Clean Water Act (CWA)....more
One unanswered question from the Deepwater Horizon litigation was the Clean Water Act civil penalty liability that would be imposed – or not – on Anadarko Petroleum, a passive owner of a 24% interest in the BP lease. On...more
The United States and BP lodged their proposed settlement of the remaining claims by the US in connection with the Deepwater Horizon explosion and spill with the US District Court today. Comments to the Justice Department are...more
10/6/2015
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Clean Water Act ,
Consent Decrees ,
Deepwater Horizon ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Energy Sector ,
Gulf Oil Spill ,
Oil & Gas ,
Oil Spills ,
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Petroleum Refining ,
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Settlement Agreements ,
Shell Oil ,
Transocean
There are many lessons that one could take from the outcome of the seven year (and counting) litigation involving environmental groups and the operators of the Los Angeles County stormwater system. Certainly one lesson is to...more
On an appeal of a penalty determination in the first oil spill case to be tried under the civil penalty provisions enacted after the Exxon Valdez catastrophe in the Oil Pollution Act of 1991, the Fifth Circuit Court of...more