Source: http://www.insurancejournal.com, January 8, 2015 By: Andrew Zajac and Mark Drajem 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 oil and gas drilling. Fracking involves the injection of water, chemicals […]

Source: http://www.natlawreview.com, January 8, 2015 On December 30, 2014, the Wisconsin Supreme Court decided two cases in which the central issue was whether the substance responsible for the alleged property damage constitutes a “pollutant” sufficient to invoke pollution exclusions in relevant insurance policies. In Preisler v. General Casualty Ins. Co., et al., 2014 WI 135, and Wilson […]

Source: http://www.lexology.com, December 17, 2014 By: Amy B. Briggs, Donna M. Carlton, David B. Killalea , Stephen T. Raptis, Robert H. Shulman and Susan P. White, Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP Why it matters A New York federal court recently ruled that the discharge of ammonia at a manufacturing plant – causing a facility shutdown […]

Source: http://www.lexology.com, December 17, 2014 By: Donna M. Carlton, Amy B. Briggs, David B. Killalea , Stephen T. Raptis, Robert H. Shulman and Susan P. White, Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP Why it matters A New York appellate court recently decided that an insurance policy’s noncumulation clause limited the amount of coverage available to a […]

Read here about a leak in Ohio at a natural gas fracking well.

Source: http://www.latimes.com, December 22, 2014 By: Kim Christensen and Tony Barboza Exide Technologies officials willfully endangered the health of more than 60 children living near the company’s troubled lead recycling plant in Vernon, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The complaint alleges that Exide officers, directors and managers intentionally […]

Source: http://www.mondaq.com, January 2, 2015 In early November, a jury found in favor of the policyholder in KeySpan Gas East Corp. v. Munich Reinsurance America Inc. et al., resolving a 17-year-old coverage dispute over pollution cleanup costs for historic manufactured gas plant sites on Long Island. Long Island Lighting Co., which sued the insurers in […]

Source: http://www.lexology.com, December 22, 2014 By: John C. Pitblado, Carlton Fields Jorden Burt A New York statute provides that liability insurers may not deny claims on grounds of late notice, unless they can show they were prejudiced by the delay. The statute applies to policies “issued or delivered” in New York. In October 2014, in Indian Harbor Ins. […]

Source: http://www.insurancejournal.com, January 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 to the Best’s report titled “U.S. Insurers Continue Funding of Asbestos & Environmental Liabilities, Despite Elusive End Game,” […]

Source: http://www.riverheadlocal.com, January 5, 2015 By: Civiletti One of Riverhead Water District’s newest wells is producing water contaminated with perchlorate, a chemical known to affect the human endocrine system and considered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency a “likely human carcinogen.” Well 16, located off Edwards Avenue north of Route 25 in Calverton, completed in […]

Source: http://www.philly.com, January 5, 2015 By: Angelo Fichera When Paulsboro reached a settlement in December with the plastics company it had sued nearly a year before over a contaminated water well, it marked a win for a scrappy industrial town familiar with environmental woes. The agreement, valued at more than $2 million, stipulates that Solvay […]

Source: http://www.triplepundit.com, January 1, 2015 By: Tina Casey If you heard that loud sighing sound coming from New York state earlier this month, that was probably a sigh of relief as Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo finally agreed to a statewide ban on fracking. The ban followed the release of the state’s Department of Health study, […]