Earlier this month, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York denied a motion by several environmental organizations seeking to intervene in a multistate constitutional challenge to New York’s Climate Change Superfund Act (“CCSA” or the “Act”) – a landmark 2024 statute designed to recover climate adaptation costs from major fossil fuel producers. The statute (N.Y. Env’t Conservation Law §§ 76-0101, et seq.) has drawn national attention as one of the more aggressive state-level attempts to assign financial responsibility for climate impacts.  For background on the CCSA, see my special alert post. Read More »

Share | Email| Comments|  Topics: Air, Climate Change, Greenhouse Gas, Intervention, Legislation, New York, Oil and Gas, Second Circuit, Standing

On October 3, 2025 a three judge panel for the Second Circuit ruled that Exxon Mobil Corporation, BP P.L.C., Shell Oil Company, and the American Petroleum Institute (“API”) must pay New York City (“the City”)’s attorneys’ fees and costs for advancing “absurd” arguments in opposing the City’s motion to remand to state court its suit for deceptive practices connected to climate change. City of New York v. Exxon Mobil Corp., No. 24-1568-CV (2d Cir. Oct. 3, 2025). This decision demonstrates that while parties may, at times, find success in advancing arguments that have been rejected by other courts, there are risks to advancing such arguments, including the risk of sanctions. Read More »

Share | Email| Comments|  Topics: Air, Climate Change, Greenhouse Gas, New York, Oil and Gas, Removal, Second Circuit

This post was written by MGKF summer associate Kennedy Reardon

On July 17, 2025, the Second Circuit issued an opinion in ELG Utica Alloys, Inc. v. Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. affirming an order granting summary judgment against ELG Utica Alloys, Inc.’s (“ELG”) in its CERCLA cost recovery suit, on the grounds that the applicable six-year statute of limitations had expired.  The decision is significant because it establishes a rule in the Second Circuit that, for a multi-phase remediation involving a single source of contamination at a single “facility,” the statute of limitations begins to run at the initiation of the first phase of cleanup. Read More »

Share | Email| Comments|  Topics: CERCLA, Contamination, Cost Recovery, New York, Remediation, Second Circuit, Superfund

On Wednesday, August 18, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated a district court order dismissing claims for violations of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act ("CERCLA"), 42 U.S.C. § 9601 et seq. See Revitalizing Auto Cmtys. Envtl. Response Tr. v. Nat'l Grid USA, No. 20-1931-cv (2d Cir. Aug. 18, 2021). The Court held that the claims, which were brought under sections 107 and 113 of CERCLA, were prudentially ripe because they were based on costs plaintiffs had already incurred for which they might not receive repayment through EPA investigation. Id. Read More »

Share | Email| Comments|  Topics: CERCLA, Cleanup, Contamination, Contribution, Cost Recovery, New York, Ripeness, Second Circuit, Statute of Limitations, Superfund

Earlier this month, the Second Circuit affirmed the District Court for the Southern District of New York’s ruling that state common law claims against oil companies for costs resulting from climate change were either preempted by the Clean Air Act, or, in the case of foreign emissions, represented a non-justiciable political question. See City of New York v. Chevron Corp., 993 F.3d 81, 2021 WL 1216541 (2d Cir. 2021). The decision represents the first time an appellate court has had the opportunity to rule on the merits of the federal preemption defense raised by defendants. Although there are active lawsuits in other jurisdictions where plaintiffs have made substantially similar claims, decisions in the other active climate change suits thus far have been restricted to the issue of whether climate change suits brought in state court were properly removed to federal court. The decisions in those cases, therefore, have not addressed the merits of the federal preemption defense. (The Supreme Court is predicted to issue a ruling on the removal issue by the end of its term in June. See Mayor & City Council of Baltimore v. BP p.l.c., et al., 388 F. Supp. 3d 538, 548 (D. Md.), as amended (June 20, 2019), aff’d, 952 F.3d 452 (4th Cir.), cert. granted, 141 S. Ct. 222 (2020)). Read More »

Share | Email| Comments|  Topics: Air, Clean Air Act, Climate Change, New York, Preemption, Second Circuit

In MPM Silicones, LLC v. Union Carbide Corporation, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that there can be more than one “remedial action” at a site under certain circumstances for the purpose of determining the statute of limitations under CERCLA. Dkt. No. 17-3468(L), 17-3669(XAP) (2d Cir. 2019). The decision clarified a statement in a prior decision by the Second Circuit that had suggested otherwise. Read More »

Share | Email| Comments|  Topics: CERCLA, Contamination, Groundwater, PCBs, Remediation, Second Circuit, Statute of Limitations, Superfund, West Virginia

In two recent decisions, courts have continued to preclude “classic” tort claims without proof of a current symptomatic condition and to place substantial limits on medical monitoring clams under state common law. In Benoit v. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corporation, No. 17-3941 (2d Cir. 2020), the Second Circuit affirmed a district court’s denial of defendants’ motion to dismiss medical monitoring damages based on personal injury but cast significant doubt of the viability of such relief in the absence of any physical manifestation of exposure.  And in Letart v. Union Carbide Corporation, No. 2:19-cv-00877 (S.D. W.Va. 2020), the Court granted a motion to dismiss plaintiffs’ common law claims but allowed medical monitoring claims related to ethylene oxide (“EtO”) emissions to proceed, yet without addressing or determining whether the plaintiffs can meet the evidentiary requirements for such claims.  Read More »

Share | Email| Comments|  Topics: Medical Monitoring, PFAS, Second Circuit, Toxic Torts

The adage “you can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube” has manifested itself in two recent federal court decisions. Under separate theories, both the Second Circuit and the District Court of the District of Columbia have issued decisions that highlight the difficulty environmental groups faced in challenging energy infrastructure projects that have been completed during the course of litigation. Read More »

Share | Email| Comments|  Topics: Administrative Appeals, Administrative Procedures Act, Army Corps, Citizen Suit, D.C. Circuit, Energy, Marcellus Shale, NEPA, New York, NPDES, Oil and Gas, Pipelines, Second Circuit

In an unpublished opinion, the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey held that the Government was not liable under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (“CERCLA”) or Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (“RCRA”) for remediation costs incurred at a former defense site. PPG Indus., Inc. v. United States, No. 12-3526, 2018 WL 6168623 (D.N.J. Nov. 26, 2018). Last year we reported on TDY Holdings v. United States, in which the Ninth Circuit rejected a zero percent liability allocation to the government for remediation costs incurred at a former aeronautical manufacturing plant. In PPG Industries, the District of New Jersey found that the Government’s general wartime control over a New Jersey chromite facility was insufficient by itself to impose liability absent a direct connection between the Government and waste disposal activities. The District Court’s decision highlights a hurdle for private parties hoping to hold the government responsible for cleanup costs incurred at former defense sites. Read More »

Share | Email| Comments|  Topics: Allocation, Arranger Liability, CERCLA, Cleanup, Contamination, Contribution, Cost Recovery, New Jersey, RCRA, Second Circuit, Superfund, Waste

In an opinion issued on February 12, 2018 in the case of Cooper Crouse-Hinds LLC et al. v. City of Syracuse et al., Case No. 5:16-cv-01201 (N.D.N.Y. Feb. 12, 2018), Judge Mae D’Agostino of the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York weighed in on the issue of when state court orders for removal and remediation resolve a potentially responsible party's liability to the government under Section 113 of CERCLA, and in this case allowing, for at least the time being, Section 107 claims to proceed where there was no clear guidance from the Second Circuit. Read More »

Share | Email| Comments|  Topics: CERCLA, Cleanup, Contribution, Cost Recovery, Landfill, New York, Remediation, Removal, Second Circuit, Superfund