All the headlines from our Pollution Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Feb 17 2015 // BP Plc isn’t covered under Transocean Ltd.’s insurance policies for the undersea well blowout that caused the 2010 Gulf of Mexico disaster, the Texas Supreme Court said, blocking the oil company’s access...
Feb 6 2015 // The former owner of a chemical company that fouled drinking water used by hundreds of thousands of West Virginia residents wants his trial delayed. Attorneys for Charles Herzing cite the heft of documents they must review...
Feb 4 2015 // A year after the sudden collapse of an old drainage pipe triggered the third largest coal ash spill in U.S. history, regulators say they are still working to determine how much to fine the nation’s largest...
Jan 27 2015 // BP Plc “conducted an extraordinarily effective response” to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico spill, the company’s first witness testified Monday as the oil producer sought to minimize potential pollution fines.BP...
Jan 26 2015 // American Smelting and Refining Co. said in a Montana lawsuit filed earlier this month that Atlantic Richfield Co. concealed pollution-related documents during the sale of Atlantic Richfield’s zinc fuming plant to...
Jan 26 2015 // A former Freedom Industries executive charged in a West Virginia chemical spill is facing a new federal fraud charge stemming from the company’s bankruptcy.A federal grand jury in Beckley handed up a superseding...
Jan 21 2015 // Last week’s ruling that BP Plc’s Macondo well dumped less oil into the Gulf of Mexico than the U.S. government claimed may trigger a settlement before a decision on the amount it must pay after a trial set to...
Jan 14 2015 // Three executives charged in last January’s West Virginia chemical spill have pleaded not guilty in federal court.The pleas came a day after an FBI affidavit was unsealed, saying Freedom Industries knew about critical...
Jan 14 2015 // The Tennessee state agency charged with protecting the environment is suing the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) over its coal-burning power plant in Gallatin.The lawsuit, filed January 7 by the Tennessee Dept. of...
Jan 13 2015 // No dangerous contaminants were released into the air by an explosion at an oil refinery that was felt 10 miles away and sparked a fire that burned for more than 14 hours, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...