This past Friday, President Obama stopped a national security threat in its tracks:  We quote: There is credible evidence that leads me [the President] to believe that Ralls Corporation (Ralls), ..., and its subsidiaries, and the Sany Group (which includes Sany Electric and Sany Heavy Industries), a Chinese company affiliated with Ralls (together, the Companies); and, Mr. Dawei Duan (Mr. Duan) and Mr. Jialing Wu (Mr. Wu), citizens of the People's Republic of China and senior executives of the Sany Group, who together own Ralls; through exercising control of Lower Ridge Windfarm, LLC, Hig...

In litigation concerning liability for the emission of greenhouse gases, the federal common law of nuisance is displaced by the Clean Air Act.  This is not news.  It was established by the Supreme Court over a year ago in American Electric Power v. Connecticut, 131 S. Ct. 2527 (2011). This morning, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals acknowledged the rule and applied it to the plaintiffs in Native Village of Kivalina v. ExxonMobil Corp. ("Opinion") and affirmed the dismissal by the Northern District of California.  See Native Vill. of Kivalina v. ExxonMobil Corp., 663 F. Supp. 2d...

We were in New York City today at a conference, Cooling on Climate Change: Designing the Message, sponsored by the Urban Green Council.  The conundrum to be unlocked was:  how come something as serious as climate change doesn't have politicians and the public standing in line to solve the problem?  The answer is obvious to trial lawyers:  even with the most compelling facts, if you don't have the jury emotionally, the result is likely to come out wrong.  Similarly, and the point of this article, clients may be very concerned about certain effects caused by climate chan...

Nasty diseases like Ebola and SARS are not something one picks up in the good old USA, particularly at a national park, like, say, Yosemite.  Well that would be wrong.  Three visitors have died this summer from something called the hantavirus.  Infectious disease specialists have localized the most likely cause to a rustic tent site in Curry Village, popular with visitors to the park. Hantavirus is transmitted through the aerosolization of infected rodent feces and urine.  The mortality rate is about one in three. This is not good. You may be saying this is ...

We have been rather tough on Florida and its insurer of last resort, Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, over the years (not that they pay any attention to climatelawyers.com).  But Citizens has deserved it. Here is what its president, Barry Gilway, has had to say about the current state of affairs: Citizens is close to being able to cover a major hurricane, the kind that strikes once every 100 years. ... Citizens has the ability to pay $19.5 billion in claims – close to the roughly $22 billion maximum expected damage from a 100-year storm. But more than $5 billion, or ab...