As part of a settlement with the EPA, National Grid will pay $100M for cleanup of the Gowanus Canal Superfund site in Brooklyn, New York. National Grid, which provides natural gas and electricity for New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, has been identified by the EPA as a potentially responsible party with regard to the contamination there; additional PRPs include the City of New York, and other private and federal government entities. The settlement funds will “support cleanup work near the head of the Gowanus Canal, including the cleanup and restoration of Thomas Greene Park, as well as the Douglass and DeGraw Pool.” https://www.wateronline.com/doc/epa-national-grid-reach-major-agree
Plaintiff-Appellants (“Residents”), who live near a waste disposal area known as “Wastebed 13” at the Onondaga Lake Superfund site, brought suit against Honeywell, alleging, among other things, state tort law claims. In affirming the lower court’s dismissal of the Residents’ Complaint, the Second Circuit found that 1) there was subject matter jurisdiction because “federal issues [existed] which [were] amenable to federal court resolution without interfering with the federal-state balance approved by Congress,” and 2) CERCLA preempted the Residents’ claims. The court found that the allegations of state tort law violations in the Complaint conflicted with the federally-enforced CERCLA remediat
Of the $225 million settlement collected from ExxonMobil for polluted sites in the state, New Jersey Governor Murphy plans to use $125 million to supplement the state budget; of the remaining money, $50 million will be used to satisfy attorneys’ fees and only the remaining $50 million will be used to fund the actual cleanup costs of the polluted sites. This move is especially controversial because the $225 million settlement with ExxonMobil is a fraction of the $8.9 billion originally sought by the state; specifically, $8.9 billion was what the state estimated was needed to clean up the Exxon-owned polluted NJ sites. Moreover, last November, NJ voters passed a state constitutional amendment
Calling Exxon’s claims against New York Attorney General Schneiderman and Massachusetts Attorney General Healy “implausible,” a NY District Court dismissed Exxon’s lawsuit against the attorney generals (AGs) with prejudice. The two AGs have been investigating “whether Exxon misled investors and the public about its knowledge of climate change and the potential effects that climate change may have on Exxon’s business.” In response, Exxon filed suit claiming the AGs’ investigation violated Exxon’s constitutional rights as retaliation for “[Exxon’s] speech relative to climate change and the ‘policy tradeoffs of certain climate initiatives.’” In dismissing Exxon’s complaint for failing to state