Filed in New York on Friday (Carl Campanile, “$ue-Nami Hits U.S.”, New York Post, Mar. 6)(more)(yet more). We covered the story Feb. 16.
Posts Tagged ‘environment’
New York’s wasted waterfront
It’s a tale of malzoning and government misuse (Julia Vitullo-Martin (Manhattan Institute), “Blight by law”, New York Post, Feb. 28).
“$1.2 million? Thanks but no thanks”
At least 30 residents of the Downriver section of Wayne County, Mich., south of Detroit, “have rejected up to $550 per family member, which is their share of a $1.2 million settlement prompted when about 2,500 residents evacuated their homes during a July 2001 chemical leak. To be eligible, all they had to do was sign a form that said they been home in the affected areas of Grosse Ile, Wyandotte, Riverview or Trenton at the time of the leak. While some acknowledged that they weren’t home, several others said they didn’t support the lawsuit or deserve the money.” Trenton retiree Thelma Diemer says she wasn’t hurt and went shopping during the evacuation: “I didn’t feel I was being honest accepting the money and you have to think about the hereafter, especially when you’re 86.” (David Shepherdson, Detroit News, Feb. 4)(via National Review Online)
CasiNO
CasiNO Free Sullivan County, an anti-casino group in New York, has sued to block the introduction of casinos to the area, claiming the casinos will pose a health hazard:
“The cumulative impact from these casinos will negatively affect the health and well-being of residents in the Town of Thompson, Sullivan County, and the entire region,” said Rosa Lee, a spokeswoman for the group. “The enormous increase in traffic itself would cause serious air pollution and bumper-to-bumper congestion, resulting in a significant reduction in air quality by the introduction of particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns, a common cause of serious lung disease, since such particulate matter lodges more deeply into the lungs than do larger ones.”
Mid-Hudson News Network, “Anti-casino group files lawsuit to block gaming,” Jan 4.
Anniston’s acrid aftermath
Forbes covers the aftermath of the much-ballyhooed Aug. 2003 settlement in which Monsanto/Solutia (which, because of a complicated history, is different from the company currently calling itself Monsanto) agreed to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to resolve the claims of thousands of residents of Anniston, Ala. about the company’s former release of PCBs. Despite earlier commentary (including ours of Apr. 15) pegging the settlement at $300 million with $120 million going to plaintiff’s lawyers, Forbes says the actual figures (counting all the cases settled) amount to a total $600 million with 39%, or $234 million, going to the lawyers, who include former senator Donald Stewart and Johnnie Cochran of O.J. fame. “What has unfolded in Anniston instead [of the expected big payouts for poor plaintiffs] is a financial free-for-all, an unseemly grab for money by the lawyers, residents and assorted hangers-on.” One trouble sign: many of the people putting in claims for damages have zero PCBs in their blood, and some never lived a day in Anniston in their lives. (Susan Kitchens, “Money Grab”, Forbes, Nov. 15 ($) or at KeepMedia).
Church air called hazardous
Just when you thought it was safe to run inside and pray: “Air inside churches may be a bigger health risk than that beside major roads, research suggests.” Candles and incense are deemed likely culprits for the prevailing high levels of polycyclic hydrocarbons and particulates, the latter of which were found at 12 to 20 times permissible EU levels. (“Church air is ‘threat to health'”, BBC, Nov. 20). Libertarian Samizdata has a rather drastic suggestion for what to do about the new findings. Another possibility, of course, is that the official EU hazard limits are set at a super-cautious level that has little to do with the amount of risk most people would consider it reasonable to bear. More on the candle menace: Jun. 19, 2001 (EPA advisory); Nov. 4-5, 2002 (Calif. “right-to-know” suits against candle makers).
Update: Louisiana Supreme Court smacks down oyster lawsuit
We’ve previously covered the ludicrous billion-dollar oyster fishermen lawsuits in Louisiana (Sep. 10; May 25; Oct. 18, 2003), where a jury awarded a sum greater than the value of the last century of oyster harvests to oyster fishermen who had a slightly reduced harvest because of a coastal conservation project that changed the beds’ salinity. The Louisiana Supreme Court decided to enforce the “hold harmless” provision in the $2/acre leases that the lower courts ignored, and unanimously voted to toss the judgment; the plaintiffs get zero. For the first time, the press coverage notes that the oyster fishermen negotiated for the clauses as a compromise in 1989 when the state indicated that they were not going to renew the leases to avoid precisely the issue of liability for changed salinity levels–alas, I see no indication that the state will sue the fishermen for breaking that promise in their contract. The refusal of courts to enforce immunity clauses (and laws) is all too often a problem. Louisiana taxpayers should be pleased that the state stood on principle and refused the plaintiffs’ proposal to settle for less than thirteen cents on the dollar of the verdict. (Jeffrey Meitrodt, “Oyster farmers’ award overturned”, New Orleans Times-Picayune, Oct. 20; Janet McConnaughey, “Court throws out $1.3 billion judgment in oyster lease case”, AP, Oct. 20). The AP gives a soapbox to the plaintiffs in an article that has no acknowledgement of the fundamental unfairness of their claim. (Cain Burdeau, AP, “Caernarvon ruling leaves oystermen seething”, Oct. 20).
RFK Jr.’s “Crimes Against Nature”
I’m in Sunday’s New York Post with a review of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s new volume on environmental policy, “Crimes Against Nature”. It’s fair to say I didn’t much care for the book; in fact, I found it staggeringly bad (“the book affords the fun of a pratfall on every page, most of them occasioned by Kennedy’s epic self-righteousness and astounding disregard for conventional accuracy”). (“Crimes of Ego”, Oct. 17). For more on RFK Jr., see Oct. 5, Apr. 19-21, 2002 and links from there (& welcome Instapundit, Volokh Conspiracy readers)(bumped Oct. 18).
Voices of moderation dept.: RFK Jr.
Prof. Jonathan Adler of Case Western attends a speech given at Case by celebrity environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and blogs the hothead scion’s frothy rant (Sept. 30). (Kennedy on the media, per Adler: “They should all drink poison Kool Aid and restore integrity to their profession.”) Kennedy was widely ridiculed two years ago for repeatedly asserting that large hog-raising operations are a greater threat to American democracy than Osama bin Laden (see Apr. 19-21, 2002) and if Adler’s account is accurate, the embarrassment has by no means abated.
Environmental impact laws: new bludgeon for unionists
Nice little power plant you’re planning there, wouldn’t want anything to happen to it: Municipal officials in California are charging that a powerful labor group, California Unions for Reliable Energy, is exploiting environmental protection laws to extract money for its members. The city council of Roseville wanted to press ahead with a $150 million power plant but was told by city managers that unless it signed a “project labor agreement” pledging to employ union workers CURE “would try to delay licensing for the gas-fired plant by raising environmental objections. Snubbing CURE could cost $15 million in extra red tape and other costs and put the project 18 months behind schedule.”
CURE says it is only utilizing its legal rights (which it possesses in common with every other potential objector) to ensure that plants comply with environmental guidelines. But “critics say CURE abandons its green crusades once power-plant developers agree to use union labor,” a charge the group denies. Even a Sierra Club official is critical of the group, while Riverside council member Steve Adams referred to its actions as “borderline extortion or racketeering.” And: “The California Energy Commission, which licenses new plants, has launched an inquiry following a complaint by Assembly Republicans.” (Dale Kasler, “Pressure by labor group alleged”, Sacramento Bee, Sept. 19).