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On June 3, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued another major Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) decision, albeit in an unpublished opinion. The case is Solvay USA v. EPA. In 2011, EPA issued rules to classify non-hazardous secondary materials under RCRA as “solid waste” for the purpose of Clean Air Act emission standards applicable to sludge incinerators and other combustion units. The rule is codified at 40 C.F.R. Part 241. As noted by the Court of Appeals , whether a facility is regulated by Clean Air Act (CAA) Section 7429 or 7412 has significant practical consequences for the regulated facilities. The Court of Appeals rejected the arguments of both the environmental and industry petitioners, holding that EPA’s interpretation of both RCRA and the CAA was entitled to considerable deference by the courts, and that the Administrative Procedure Act will only allow a court to set aside an action that arbitrary and capricious, and there is no evidence that it was. The Court of Appeals’ opinion is very brief (four pages) and will not be published. However, the Court of Appeals directed the clerk not to issue the mandate for seven days to give the parties time to seek rehearing or rehearing en banc.

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On June 2, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit decided the case of Carbon Sequestration Council and Southern Company Services, Inc., v. EPA on standing grounds. In 2010, EPA promulgated a rule establishing a new category of Safe Drinking Water Act injection wells, known as “Class VI” wells, to respond to the need to sequester large amounts of carbon dioxide necessitated by EPA’s new carbon capture and storage program. In connection with this rulemaking, EPA also determined that “supercritical carbon dioxide streams” managed in Class VI wells were “solid waste” within the meaning of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Believing that EPA’s action was inconsistent with RCRA and a number of DC Circuit precedents, this determination was challenged. However, the Court of Appeals held that none of the petitioners had standing to litigate this issue. Under circuit precedent, the Court of Appeals ruled that they could not show that they suffered any injuries attributable to this new rule although they were otherwise deeply engaged in the carbon capture and storage program.

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On June 2, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit decided the case of Adkisson v. Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc.. The Court of Appeals reversed the federal district court’s dismissal of lawsuits premised on the argument that Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc. was entitled to derivative governmental immunity based on its contractual relationship with a government entity protected by the Federal Tort Claims Act, directing the district court to its decision. The Court of Appeals noted that the extent of immunity for government contractors has been debated by the courts of appeals, suggesting that the Supreme Court may want to take another look at some of its rulings in this area.
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Recently, Utah Governor Gary Herbert signed into law House Bill 46, new law that amends the provisions relating to unauthorized and excessive claims of preconstruction and construction liens. For those parties who agree to arbitrate claims for a residential project or for $50,000 or less, H.B. 46 amends Section 38-1a-308 of the Utah Code to add Subdivisions (b)(4) through (15), which create procedures to initiate, conduct, and appeal an arbitration proceeding to resolve a claim for an excessive notice of preconstruction or construction lien.
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Today, Pillsbury attorneys Mark Jones and Kathleen Bardunias, and summer associate Kevin Lin, published their client alert SEC Proposes Pay-for-Performance Disclosure Rules. The Advisory discusses the SEC’s recently proposed rule under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that would require public companies to disclose the relationship between the compensation actually paid to certain key executives and the financial performance of the company, as measured by total shareholder return. If the proposed rule is finalized during 2015, affected companies may be required to make the “pay-for-performance” disclosures as early as the 2016 proxy season.

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In an important decision released on May 29, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit rejected the Sierra Club and other environmental organizations’ most recent objections to the permitting and construction of TransCanada’s Gulf Coast pipeline. The case is Sierra Club, et al. v Bostick. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued letters verifying that the Corps Nationwide Permit 12, authorized by the Clean Water Act (CWA), would cover the proposed pipeline. The pipeline has now been constructed and is delivering oil, and covers 485 miles and consists of 2000 water crossings necessitating the use of this permit, which “allows anyone to construct utility lines in U. S. waters ‘provided the activity does not result in the loss of greater than ½ acre of U. S. waters for each single and complete project.'” The Court of Appeals noted that the project also required TransCanada to satisfy wetlands mitigation requirements. In challenging the validity of the Nationwide Permit and the verification letters, the plaintiffs argued that the Corps of Engineers violated both the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the CWA.
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Recently, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe signed into law Senate Bill 891, new law effective July 1, 2015. S.B. 891 adds Section 11-4.1:1 to the Virginia Code and amends Subdivision (C) of Section 43-3 of the Virginia Code to prohibit the waiver of payment bond claims or contract claims, and the waiver of the right to file or enforce any mechanics’ lien by subcontractors, lower-tier subcontractors and material suppliers in construction contracts.
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The Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) denied the 2012 application of the Trinity Lutheran Church to participate in a state program that makes state solid waste management funds available to qualifying organizations to purchase recycled tires to resurface playgrounds. This use of recycled tires is described as a “beneficial use of solid waste”. Trinity Lutheran’s application was rejected on the basis of a long-standing provision of the Missouri Constitution which specifically provides that “no money shall ever be taken from the public treasury, directly or indirectly, in aid of any church”. Trinity Lutheran filed a challenge to this decision in federal court, alleging that the rejection of its application, which the DNR ranked 5th of 44 applications received in 2012, violated its rights under both the federal and Missouri state constitutions. Noting that Missouri has a long history of maintaining a very high wall between church and state, the federal district court dismissed the lawsuit, which the Eighth Circuit affirmed in an opinion released on May 29, 2015. The case is reported as Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Pauley.
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Recently, a California Court of Appeals, in East West Bank v. Rio School District, concluded that “a dispute over the contract price does not entitle a public entity to withhold funds due a contractor,” avoiding the Public Contract Code § 7107 penalties. It further noted its disagreement with the 2009 decision in Martin Brothers Construction, Inc. v. Thompson Pacific Construction, Inc., 179 Cal.App.4th 1401 (2009), and confirmed that the doctrine of unclean hands does not apply to Section 7107.
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A version of our article titled Surviving the Storm originally appeared in a Bay Area Council publication in the March 2015. It discusses Superstorm Sandy’s sobering preview of the types of insurance and risk management issues that business and residents face given the prospects of a catastrophic storm.