Climate Change Blog | McCarter & English

Force Placed Insurance When the Flood Plain Fails to Consider Climate Change

May 8, 2012 22:22
by J. Wylie Donald
An interesting case crossed our desk last week from the Texas Court of Appeals. The amount at issue, $4,410.69, belies its significance. In Alvarado v. Lexington Insurance Company, Nos. 01-10-00740-CV, 01-10-01150-CV, slip op. (Tex. Ct. App. 1st Dist. Apr. 19, 2012) (attached), the court thoroughly examined (with extensive citations) the issue of whether a homeowner, subject to "force placed" insurance, has any rights in the policy obtained by his lender.  The majority concluded that the te...

Climate Change | Climate Change Effects | Flood Insurance

Virginia Supreme Court Stands Firm on Rehearing Climate Change Insurance Case: AES v. Steadfast is (Re-) Affirmed

April 20, 2012 17:12
by J. Wylie Donald
The Virginia Supreme Court surprised us today.  It issued its opinion (attached) on rehearing in AES Corp. v. Steadfast Insurance Co., hardly changed from its original decision finding that the allegations in Native Village of Kivalina v. ExxonMobil Corp. did not constitute an occurrence.  The concurrence, however, is substantially altered, and it is there that one can get a taste of the mischief to which this decision may lead. We have blogged this subject on several occasions.&...

Carbon Emissions | Climate Change Litigation | Insurance

Travails of A123, Fisker and Ener1 Don't UnPlug Nissan CEO Ghosn at New York Auto Show

April 5, 2012 10:05
by J. Wylie Donald
 Imagine an industry.  Let’s make it a high technology industry.  And we’ll make it risky.  It will be a new technology, linked to other new technologies.  We’ll have over a dozen companies in this industry and some of them will partner with their suppliers or their customers, just as established industries do.  And just because it is new technology doesn’t mean that old issues don’t matter.  Each company will still have to satisfy...

Carbon Dioxide | Sustainability

A Primer on How Regulation of Greenhouse Gases Coming out of a Tailpipe Led to Regulation of Greenhouse Gases Coming out of a Stack

March 30, 2012 00:38
by J. Wylie Donald
Tuesday EPA issued its proposed rule (see related post) concerning new source performance standards for greenhouse gas emissions for electric power plants.  This all started when EPA refused to address greenhouse gas emissions coming out of cars.  Cars to power plants.  Some may be wondering how the camel got into this tent. The story begins of course with Massachusetts v. EPA, 549 U.S. 497 (2007), where the Supreme Court held that greenhouse gases emitted in automobile exha...

Carbon Dioxide | Carbon Emissions | Regulation

Proposed Rule for Power Plant Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Much Ado About Nothing?

March 30, 2012 00:20
by J. Wylie Donald
Wow!  Whether one likes the president or not, one must concede he's not afraid of leading. Just a little over seven months from the election he has drawn a line in the sand and proposed a rule that may fundamentally alter America's energy mix and takes a big step toward addressing carbon dioxide emissions.  Or it does nothing at all.  We are talking of course of Tuesday's announcement of new source performance standards for electricity plants.   In EPA's words: The...

Carbon Dioxide | Carbon Emissions | Greenhouse Gases | Regulation

Dismissed Means Dismissed: Comer v. Murphy Oil, the First Climate Change Liability Damages Suit, Is Tossed Again

March 22, 2012 22:14
by J. Wylie Donald
In a case of surprising longevity, Comer v Murphy Oil USA, Inc., may finally have been laid to rest. In a decision filed Tuesday, Judge Louis Guirola, Jr., Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, concluded that the plaintiffs in the first climate change liability damages suit were not entitled to a second bite at the apple. And even if they were, their case still failed. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, numerous parties filed scores of law...

Carbon Dioxide | Climate Change Litigation

Studies Map Climate Change Driven Storm Surge Down to Your Zip Code

March 16, 2012 23:09
by J. Wylie Donald
We were on the front page of the New York Times earlier this week. We wish!  Our marketing department has not cracked that nut yet. Not so the folks at Climate Central. Their press release about their report, Surging Seas, got them a front page spot in New York. It also was picked up by papers of record in Miami, Boston, Los Angeles, and Chicago, among others. Internet outlets like the Huffington Post and msnbc.com carried it. Even the UK's Daily Mail has picked it up. What was s...

Climate Change Effects | Legislation | Regulation | Rising Sea Levels | Weather

Global Warming Is Cooking Ice Hockey's Goose. But Not If The Western Climate Initiative Has Its Way.*

March 6, 2012 23:39
by J. Wylie Donald
There was dismal news out of the North yesterday.  Researchers in Canada have concluded that climate change threatens the national pastime.  In a March 5 article in Environmental Research Letters, researchers Nikolay Damyanov, Damon Matthews and Lawrence Mysak investigated changes in the outdoor skating season over the period 1951 to 2005.  They found "that the outdoor skating season (OSS) in Canada has significantly shortened in many regions of the country as a result o...

Climate Change Effects | Regulation

Connecticut Introduces Bill to Incorporate Climate Change Strategic Retreat into Coastal Zone Management Act

March 4, 2012 23:48
by J. Wylie Donald
Apocryphally, the emperor of the Eternal City took out his violin while the city was consumed in a conflagration. In lay terms, Nero fiddled while Rome burned.  Some would like to draw the analogy to climate change policy in the United States, held up based on principles, or partisanship, or grandstanding or blind denial.  Whatever the reason, the climate for making climate change policy has grown decidedly colder since the heady days of 2008 when even the Republican party was on board...

Climate Change | Climate Change Litigation | Legislation | Rising Sea Levels

Bad Karma for Fisker Automotive: Of Loans and Lawsuits

February 21, 2012 22:59
by J. Wylie Donald
As if it wasn’t hard enough trying to displace the internal combustion engine as the motive force of the automobile, then this happens.  First the plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt’s battery starts catching fire.  Then battery-maker Ener1 files for bankruptcy protection.  Last Thursday, the electric vehicle arena acknowledged more bad news.  Fisker Automotive, maker of the electric sport coupe Karma and promisor of the Nina, issued a press release following...

Climate Change | Green Marketing | Solar Energy


McCARTER & ENGLISH CLIMATE CHANGE AND RENEWABLE ENERGY PRACTICE GROUP

The business case for the development of renewable energy projects, from biodiesel and ethanol to wind, solar, and distributed generation, is more compelling than ever as tax and regulatory incentives combine to attract investments. Emerging issues in environmental law and increasingly recognized principles of corporate social responsibility are encouraging public companies to voluntarily reduce greenhouse gas emissions, install clean energy alternatives, and invest overseas in projects under the Kyoto Protocol to respond to climate change concerns.

Click here for more information and a list of our group members.
© 2012 McCarter & English, LLP. All Rights Reserved. disclaimer
navbottom image