Long ago and far away? Oil company liability
Chevron is not the only US oil company facing blockbuster claims for damages from South American indigenous groups, due to past environmental damage apparently sanctioned by their governments. The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed to allow 25 Peruvian plaintiffs to sue Occidental …
View the post titled Long ago and far away? Oil company liabilityChevron, Ecuador, and court shopping
30,000 people, including indigenous tribes, suing Chevron (for toxic waste discharges by its predecessor, Texaco) obtained an $8.6 billion judgment this week from the Provincial Court of Justice of Sucumbios in Lago Agrio, Ecuador. The penalty is reportedly to be doubled if Chevron does not…
View the post titled Chevron, Ecuador, and court shoppingEveryone liable for PCB-contaminated oil
A British Columbia used oil company has successfully sued the owner of a PCB transformer, and everyone down a contractual chain, for failing to warn them that the oil was almost pure PCBs. It was awarded $776,033.75.
View the post titled Everyone liable for PCB-contaminated oilSyncrude pays $3M for dead ducks
On Friday, Syncrude was ordered to pay $3 million in penalties for the 1,600 ducks killed in its tailings ponds four years ago. This is the highest total penalty ever imposed in Canada for an environmental offence. Syncrude was fined the maximum for a single incident: $300,000 for the feder…
View the post titled Syncrude pays $3M for dead ducksTar sands polluting the Athabaska River
How do the tar sands operators get away with polluting the great Athabaska River, despite federal and provincial laws that allegedly protect rivers? By insisting that everything is fine, and that all the pollution is “natural”. Now, Professor David Schindler has blown their cover…
View the post titled Tar sands polluting the Athabaska RiverBP and bad regulators: Minerals Management Service
One of the biggest scandals surrounding the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was the incompetence and worse of its regulator, the Minerals Management Service. Can pro-energy regulators also protect the environment? It seems unlikely.
View the post titled BP and bad regulators: Minerals Management ServiceAir pollution class action against the tar sands?
The successful class action by Port Colborne residents, Smith v. Inco, has opened the door to a similar class action against the tar sands. In Inco, nickel particles were emitted from the refinery for 80 years. There was no proof that Inco ever operated illegally or negligently, or failed …
View the post titled Air pollution class action against the tar sands?Public risk, private profits – why cap liability?
Humans are not perfect. Engineering, while amazing, is not perfect. Accidents ( including spills) will happen. What should environmental law, and lawyers, do about it?
View the post titled Public risk, private profits – why cap liability?Syncrude found guilty in ducks case
Syncrude has been found guilty of two offences relating to the large duck kill of 2008. That April, 1606 migrating ducks died after landing on the toxic tailings pond of the huge Aurora tar sands mine. A member of the Sierra Club laid the original charges, another vindication for private pro…
View the post titled Syncrude found guilty in ducks caseWas BP evil or unlucky?
Did the Gulf oil spill occur because BP was negligent or unlucky? They may have been merely unlucky; the sorts of tradeoffs that they made are likely common in the oil industry. Still, it was inevitable, given the scale of the spill, that BP would be vilified and probably prosecuted. It is …
View the post titled Was BP evil or unlucky?Receive Blog Posts
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