Latest Pollution Headlines
All the headlines from our Pollution Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Stand-Alone Pollution Insurance Undersold in the Oil Patch
Jun 3 2015 // While stand-alone pollution insurance coverage for energy risks is available in the marketplace, more often than not those who need it the most may be unaware it is available or decide not to purchase it. That creates a...
Prosecutors Say No to Moving West Virginia Chemical Spill Criminal Case
Jun 1 2015 // Prosecutors oppose a motion by former executives asking a judge to move their criminal case over a chemical spill. In Charleston federal court May 29, prosecutors wrote that ex-Freedom Industries officials Gary Southern...
More Than 7,700 Gallons of Oil Sopped Up from California Coast
May 22 2015 // More than 7,700 gallons of oil has been raked, skimmed and vacuumed from a spill that stretched across 9 miles of California coast, just a fraction of the sticky, stinking goo that escaped from a broken pipeline, officials...
AXA Plans to Sell Coal Assets, Citing Concerns About Climate Change
May 22 2015 // France’s largest insurer will scrap holdings in coal companies because of concerns about climate change, broadening support for the fossil-fuel divestment movement to a major mainstream investor. AXA SA Chief...
The Scoop on Recall Insurance and Listeria-Linked Ice Cream
May 22 2015 // While peanut butter and cantaloupe made big news in recent years, ice cream is now the latest item to be pulled off grocery store shelves due to foodborne-illness. Brenham, Texas-based Blue Bell Creameries’...
Courts and Carriers Can Misapply the Absolute Pollution Exclusion
May 19 2015 // Never let it be said that an exclusion would or could be misapplied; but the absolute pollution exclusion likely qualifies as the most misapplied exclusion within the commercial general liability (CGL) policy. Reasons for...
Environmental Groups Sue, Charge Oil Train Safety Rules Inadequate
May 18 2015 // Seven environmental groups filed a lawsuit on Thursday challenging safety rules issued earlier this month for trains carrying oil, arguing the regulations are too weak to protect the public. The groups, including the...
Duke Energy Settles North Carolina Coal Ash Criminal Case for $102M
May 18 2015 // As Duke Energy pleaded guilty Thursday in a North Carolina courtroom to nine criminal violations of the federal Clean Water Act, federal prosecutors recounted examples where time and again the nation’s largest...
Bankruptcy Judge Rejects Freedom Industries’ Chemical Spill Settlement
May 18 2015 // A judge has rejected a $6.7 million bankruptcy plan by the company behind a January 2014 chemical spill in West Virginia. In a federal bankruptcy court filing last week, Judge Ronald Pearson said Freedom Industries and...
Fracking, Earthquakes and Insurance: A Collision Course?
May 18 2015 // There is increasing information suggesting that hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as “fracking,” is not all it’s cracked up to be. While it is clear that the resurgence of oil and gas production in the...
Appeals Court Returns Gulf ‘Dead Zone’ Lawsuit to Judge
May 12 2015 // A federal judge who ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to take action to regulate farm runoff and other pollution blamed for the Gulf of Mexico’s annual oxygen-depleted “dead zone” must take a...
Some Asbestos to Remain in Montana Town Under Final EPA Plan
May 7 2015 // Federal regulators’ long-delayed final cleanup plan for a Montana mining town where thousands have been sickened by asbestos contamination would leave some of the deadly material where it sits, in the walls of...
Court Fight over Dow Chemical Herbicide Widens to 15 States
Apr 30 2015 // A court fight over use of a new Dow Chemical herbicide on genetically engineered U.S. corn and soybean crops is growing to encompass 15 Midwestern states after the company recently won federal approval for more widespread...
New Mining Map Tool from Environmental Activists Finds West Virginia Most at Risk
Apr 30 2015 // Environmental activists said that mountaintop removal coal mining has been expanding closer to communities in central Appalachia in recent years, with nearly half of the 50 areas most at risk in West Virginia. As part of...
Exxon Mobil Subsidiaries to Pay Nearly $5M for Arkansas Pipeline Spill
Apr 24 2015 // Two subsidiaries of Exxon Mobil must pay almost $5 million in penalties for state and federal violations involving the 2013 Mayflower oil spill in central Arkansas, according to a consent decree filed in federal court on...
Oil, Gas Driller Settles for $73 M in Colorado Pollution Case
Apr 23 2015 // Major oil and gas driller Noble Energy has agreed to pay more than $73 million in a settlement with state and federal regulators over Colorado Front Range air-pollution violations. The Denver Post reported that the...
XL Group Introduces New Environmental Excess Policy Form
Apr 20 2015 // XL Group’s Environmental insurance business has created a new excess insurance policy to provide clients and brokers in the U.S. and Canada with a simplified way to buy an additional layer of environmental insurance...
Bottom Line: Gulf Oil Spill Isn’t an Environmental Disaster
Apr 19 2015 // In early March a 30,000-pound mat of oily gunk washed up on East Grand Terre, a barrier island in the mouth of Louisiana’s Barataria Bay. It was an ugly reminder of the blowout at BP’s Macondo well, a disaster...
It’s Insurance Buyers’ Market Now But Risk Challenges Ahead: Willis
Apr 16 2015 // Due in part to reduced catastrophe losses and the increased supply of capital, property/casualty insurance buyers can expect to face friendly market conditions on most lines of business for the remainder of 2015. But...
Judge Approves Delay in Sentencing for Duke Energy Coal Ash Crimes
Apr 16 2015 // Duke Energy received a delay Tuesday in pleading guilty to environmental crimes after the company raised the specter that bureaucratic red tape could result in power being cut to military bases across North Carolina. U.S....
