Latest Pollution Headlines
All the headlines from our Pollution Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Report: West Virginia Chemical Spill Company Aware of Defects
Jan 12 2015 // A West Virginia attorney general report says the company behind last January’s chemical spill knew of its facility’s defects for years. The report by Attorney General Patrick Morrisey office says that a 2010...
West Virginia Chemical Spill Posed Inhalation Risk: Study
Jan 9 2015 // Federal health officials overlooked risks of inhaling the licorice-scented fumes of a chemical that spilled into West Virginia’s biggest water supply last January, according to a study. The research by a Purdue...
Environmental Groups Sue EPA to Force Fracking Chemicals Disclosure
Jan 8 2015 // A coalition of advocacy groups sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for public access to information on toxic chemicals released by the energy industry through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and other forms of...
Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance Enters Environmental Segment
Jan 7 2015 // Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance (BHSI) is expanding its U.S. casualty underwriting capabilities to include pollution exposures and has named Chuck Hasselback to head its environmental group. According to Meredith...
U.S. Insurers Still Funding Asbestos, Environmental Liabilities: A.M. Best
Jan 5 2015 // The current estimate of net asbestos losses for the U.S. property/casualty industry remains at $85 billion, with net environmental losses estimated at $42 billion, according to a new Best’s Special Report. According...
U.S. Seeks Up to $18B in Fines From BP Over Gulf Oil Spill
Dec 22 2014 // The government wants BP Plc to pay $16 billion to $18 billion in water-pollution fines for the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history while seeking more than $1 billion from the co-owner of the blown-out well that caused...
Executives in West Virginia Chemical Spill Facing Criminal Charges
Dec 19 2014 // When state inspectors arrived at Freedom Industries asking about a licorice smell enveloping West Virginia’s capital city, the point person at the tank farm, Dennis P. Farrell, told them he knew nothing about a...
Insurer Philadelphia Cos. Counts Carbon Footprint
Dec 18 2014 // It’s no secret that many property/casualty insurers are tackling climate change on the back end through more sophisticated catastrophe modeling, calls for more resilient communities and pricing. But it seems to be a...
New York Will Move to Prohibit Fracking
Dec 18 2014 // New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration will move to prevent fracking in the state, citing unresolved health issues and dubious economic benefits of the widely used gas-drilling technique. New York Environmental...
OneBeacon Launches Environmental Website for Producers, Clients
Dec 18 2014 // OneBeacon Environmental, a member of Hamilton, Bermuda-based OneBeacon Insurance Group Ltd., has launched a new website, www.onebeaconenvironmental.com, featuring overviews of product lines, classes of business, and...
Lava on Track To Hit Gas Station, Stores in Hawaii
Dec 17 2014 // Lava from a volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island is on course to reach a shopping center with a gas station and a supermarket in seven to 10 days, officials said. Lava is about 1 mile from the shopping center in the small...
Environmental Liabilities in Europe: Changing Times
Dec 15 2014 // Historically, U.S. companies doing business in Europe weren’t likely to list environmental litigation among their major concerns. While the United States has boasted a robust regulatory environment for some time,...
Supreme Court Turns Down Sept. 11 Environmental Appeal
Dec 15 2014 // The U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 1 declined to revive a New York real estate developer’s lawsuit against the leaseholder of the destroyed World Trade Center and two airlines seeking environmental cleanup costs related...
Exec in West Virginia Chemical Spill Charged with Lying About Role
Dec 10 2014 // A West Virginia executive faces charges of lying to protect his personal wealth from lawsuits after his company spilled chemicals into 300,000 people’s water supply in January, according to a criminal complaint...
Latimer Appointed Environmental Risk Underwriter at ACE
Dec 9 2014 // ACE Group has appointed Robert Latimer as environmental risk underwriter as it continues to invest in building its environmental liability insurance capabilities in the UK & Ireland. Latimer will be responsible for...
Ammo Company in Montana Sued Over Lead Exposure
Dec 8 2014 // Eight former and current employees of a Bozeman, Mont. ammunition company fined for safety violations have filed a lawsuit saying they were exposed to dangerous levels of lead. The lawsuit was filed last week against USA...
N.H. Officials Remind Residents to Take Care of Fuel Storage Tanks
Dec 2 2014 // The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services issued a public service announcement reminding residents that snow and ice can damage outdoor heating oil/propane/natural gas tanks, and the piping connecting the tank...
U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Sept. 11 Environmental Appeal
Dec 2 2014 // The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to revive a New York real estate developer’s lawsuit against the leaseholder of the destroyed World Trade Center and two airlines seeking environmental cleanup costs related...
N.Y. Gov. Cuomo Wants State to Have Best Weather Monitoring System
Dec 1 2014 // Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants New York to create the nation’s best weather monitoring system, one more robust than even the National Weather Service and more capable of predicting events like the snowstorm that buried...
Florida Gov. Scott Facing Rising Seas, Climate Change Politics
Nov 17 2014 // When Florida Governor Rick Scott won re-election Nov. 4, he triumphed over both his Democratic challenger and California billionaire Thomas Steyer, who spent $20 million painting him as a climate-change denier. Scott, a...
