Happy Thanksgiving!
We wanted to take a moment and wish all of our subscribers and their families a very Happy Thanksgiving. Environmental Law Monitor will return next Thursday (11/29) with new posts. Once again, Happy Thanksgiving!
LATEST INSIGHTS
California Wildfires Provide Another Forum for Climate Change Debate
In 2018, California has seen a spate of devastating wildfires that has already consumed more than 1,000,000 acres, caused scores of deaths, rampant property destruction, and millions of dollars in economic loss. Following a 2017 fire season that was nearly equally as tragic, a public debate has emerged regarding the origin of the increased frequency …
City of Newark Distributing Water Filters Following Ineffective Lead Treatment Program
The City of Newark, NJ has been battling an aging and decaying infrastructure for years. More specifically, Newark’s aging water supply and service line infrastructure is one of many challenges it, and other similarly situated cities face. The issue of lead in drinking water captured the nation’s attention several years ago with the heath crisis that …
Di-can’t-a Part 3: Revenge of the Dicamba
Last year, we noted the commencement of several class action lawsuits involving dicamba, a widely-used herbicide that has come under fire recently based on allegations that its use has resulted in collateral damage to crops and other plant life on neighboring properties that have not been genetically modified to resist dicamba. Dicamba Updates Yesterday, Monsanto …
ATSDR PFAS Update: No Final Report Yet, But Further Guidance on Minimal Risk Levels and Drinking Water Concentrations
As most of our readers know, our firm has written extensively on PFAS, and we recently gave a 30 minute, free webinar on the important findings of the ATSDR’s toxicological profile on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The webinar discussed the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry’s role in setting minimal risk levels (MRLs) …
George Buermann to speak at CLM Southeast Conference on Mitigation Tools for Environmental Crisis Management
Join Goldberg Segalla’s George Buermann on November 9 at the 2018 CLM Southeast Conference in Atlanta, GA. George will be part of a panel discussion titled, “Weathering the Storm: Effective Mitigation Tools for Environmental Crisis Management.” The panel will discuss the actions insurers and businesses can take to shift their posture from being reactive to …
Breaking News / Glyphosate Update: Plaintiff Accepts Significantly Reduced Award in First of Its Kind Glyphosate Verdict
Last week, we reported that the judge who presided over the first trial related to alleged personal injuries from exposure to Monsanto’s glyphosate-containing herbicides slashed $211 million off of the $250 million awarded to the plaintiff in punitive damages. The reduction effectively brought the jury’s prior total award of $289 million down to $78.5 million …
Common Ground Found in Attempt to Limit Release of Ethylene Oxide Used for Sterilization
In a rare showing of bipartisanship before the mid-term elections, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, a Democrat, and Robert Berlin, a Republican State’s Attorney for DuPage County, filed a lawsuit seeking to place limits on emissions of ethylene oxide from a plant owned by Sterigenics U.S., LLC. The lawsuit alleges that the plant has released …
What’s at Stake? Two Different Approaches to Climate Change – Part I: The IPCC Summary for Policymakers
Two recently released documents – the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, Global Warming of 1.5°Summary for Policymakers (IPCC Summary), issued last week, and the Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient Vehicles Rule for Model Year 2021-2026 Passenger Cars and Light Trucks Draft Environmental Impact Statement (NHTSA EIS), issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in July 2018 – provide a stark contrast in how to respond to the …
Landmark Glyphosate Verdict Reduced by $211 Million
We previously reported on the first glyphosate exposure case to go to a jury trial where a California jury awarded a former school groundskeeper $289 million. Of the $289 million award, $250 million were for punitive damages against Monsanto. On Monday, the judge who presided over the trial slashed $211 million off of the punitive …