Court rejects GE challenge to EPA cleanup orders

subscribe

A U.S. appeals court rejected a legal challenge by General Electric Co to the federal Environmental Protection Agency's EPA orders that direct companies to clean up hazardous waste.

The court rejected the company's argument that the law and the way EPA administers it violated constitutional due process rights because the agency issued the orders without a hearing before a neutral decision maker.

The ruling was a setback to GE's long-running effort to overturn a provision of Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, known as the Superfund law that seeks to ensure that polluters pay for the environmental hazards they created.

At issue were EPA's unilateral administrative orders that direct companies and others to clean up hazardous waste for which they are responsible if the sites pose an imminent and substantial threat to public safety.

Companies that fail to follow the orders can face large fines.

GE had argued that the mere issuance of an order could inflict immediate, serious, and irreparable damage by depressing a company's stock price and increasing its cost of financing.

But the three-judge panel unanimously rejected the company's arguments.

"Such 'consequential' injuries — injuries resulting not from EPA's issuance of the" order "but from market reactions to it — are insufficient to merit" constitutional due process protection, Judge David Tatel wrote in the ruling.

To the extent the regime implicated constitutionally protected property interests by imposing compliance costs and threatening fines and punitive damages, the system satisfied due process because recipients can obtain a hearing by refusing to comply and forcing EPA to sue in federal court, he said.

The appeals court upheld a federal judge's ruling in favor of EPA.

Related News

china solar power

China boosts wind energy, photovoltaic and concentrated solar power

BEIJING - China leads renewable energies, installing more wind power, solar thermal and photovoltaic than any other country, but also leads CO2 emissions, and much remains to be done.

The effective application of Chinas renewable energy law has boosted the use of renewable energy in the country and facilitated the rapid development of the sector, a report said.

The report on compliance with renewable energy law was presented today at the current bimonthly session of the Standing Committee of the National Peoples Assembly (APN).

Electricity generated by renewable energy amounted to about 1.87 trillion kilowatts per hour in 2018, representing 26.7 percent of…

READ MORE
 Jeremy Norman

SaskPower eyes buying $300M worth of electricity from Flying Dust First Nation

READ MORE

tower

N.L. lags behind Canada in energy efficiency, but there's a silver lining to the stats

READ MORE

Ontario election

Clean, affordable electricity should be an issue in the Ontario election

READ MORE

rachel notley

Notley announces plans to move Alberta's electricity grid to net-zero by 2035 if elected

READ MORE