Declarations

“While the decision to build the Ash Pond Complex is in the past, the consequences of that decision continue today, and it now falls on the Court to address them.”

— U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw in Nashville, in a ruling requiring public utility Tennessee Valley Authority to dig up coal ash at its Tennessee power plant and move it to a lined waste site. Environmental advocates successfully argued the coal ash had been leaking pollutants into the Cumberland River for decades in violation of the Clean Water Act. TVA has said the cost to excavate and truck out the ash will be roughly $2 billion.

“Despite laws to ban cellphone use while driving, some motorists still continue to insist on texting behind the wheel – placing themselves and others at substantial risk.”

— New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement provided to The Associated Press regarding New York state’s plans to study the use of a device known as the “textalyzer” that would allow police to determine whether a motorist involved in a serious crash was texting while driving. Cuomo announced that he would direct the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee to examine the technology, as well as the privacy and constitutional questions it could raise.

“The self-aggrandizement by state agencies expanding their regulatory authority threatens the very nature of our republican form of government by undermining the representative democratic foundations upon which it is laid.”

— The Wisconsin Dairy Business Association, in a lawsuit alleging state officials are over-regulating large livestock operations, imposing pollution requirements that are tougher than federal law and arbitrarily changing runoff standards without going through the rule-making process.

“We had 1,400 acres, and we were able to salvage 150 (acres). … The rest of it failed.

— Lynn, Arkansas, farmer Jerry Morgan says insurance will cover losses from spring flooding that significantly damaged that state’s rice crop, but it will be almost impossible to make a profit. With all of the recent flooding, Morgan said there is no more “room for error” for farmers.

“The oil industry sees the writing on the wall. Their interest was to make compliance as affordable as they could.”

— Ann Notthoff of the National Resources Defense Council, which supported a bill to reduce carbon emissions by charging polluters, said the oil industry didn’t score an outright victory on cap and trade. California Assembly members considered swing votes on the bill were among the top recipients of donations from oil companies, an analysis of campaign finance filings shows.