Judge Catches BP Counsel Sneaking Extra Pages into Its Brief

BPIn a new twist on the BP litigation, BP filed a brief in a Louisiana federal court that seemed to comply with the already-enlarged 35-page limit. But the judge in the case, the Hon. Carl Barbier, uncovered BP counsel’s tactic of reducing the line spacing to cram more material into the brief than the page limit would have allowed. In this way, BP was able to fit in an extra 6 pages worth of material.

Judge Barbier had this to say about BP’s brief:

The Court should not have to waste its time policing such simple rules—particularly in a case as massive and complex as this. Counsel are expected to follow the Court’s orders both in letter and in spirit. The Court should not have to resort to imposing character limits, etc., to ensure compliance. Counsel’s tactic would not be appropriate for a college term paper. It certainly is not appropriate here.

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EPA’s New Carbon Rules: How to Form a Future Compromise

kernenergieThe Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced it will unveil carbon emissions standards for all newly built power plants in the United States.  The New York Times reported the new standards will allow natural gas power plants to emit up to 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt hour, and new coal powered plants may admit up to 1,400 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt hour.  As the article notes, natural gas power generators will easily meet the new standard.  However, many coal producers fear the 1,400 pound standard will all but kill the construction of future coal power plants, as the technology necessary to “scrub” the emissions to this lower level require new technologies and equipment which renders coal powered plants economically unviable.

While this EPA standard continues the fight between the Obama administration and environmentalists on one side, and conservatives (generally, although in many coal producing states the democratic representatives also disfavor the new EPA regulations for local economic reasons) and the power industry on the other, what is lost in this fight is any real attempt to find common ground on other power sources that work, without massive cost to the environment or the economy: nuclear power.  Quite simply, the Obama administration and the conservatives could both score economic and political points if they adopt an albeit radical idea domestically: trading nuclear bombs for nuclear energy.

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On Awareness for Environmental Poverty Lawyering

Earth month, April, provides an opportunity for everyone to reflect on how we treat our largest shared resource: the Earth itself. Use of this resource often brings to mind drilling in wildlife areas or deforestation in any number of places worldwide. However, I would like to draw attention to the environmental dangers we face in urban areas: dangerous environmental practices that tend not to come to light because they are overshadowed by major environmental disasters and because these dangers affect only those people least able to help themselves.

Many poverty-stricken communities are subject to environmental dangers with no ability to remedy them. The problems these communities face are seemingly unlimited, from the building of low-income housing developments on former toxic waste dumps, as in Love Canal, New York, to the systematic destruction of local parks and recreational areas in order to develop industry. The reasons impoverished communities often have no voice in these decisions are two-fold: (1) a lack of historical recognition of impoverished communities in the law, and (2) disorganization in the communities themselves.

In addressing the first point it is important to note that many of the environmental and community dangers across the country arising from commercial and industrial development are legal.  

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