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The Associated Press reports that Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood is suing Kenneth Feinberg, administrator of the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF), BP Plc’s (BP) $20 billion oil spill fund to get access to claims filed by coastal residents. …
Read More Deepwater Horizon: Mississippi AG Files Lawsuit Against BP Alleging Misconduct With Its $20 Billion Claim Fund

Greg Hoffnagle and Rob DiUbaldo of Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge’s New York office will be presenting “Hydrofracking Risks & Opportunities: What Underwriters Need to Know” at 11:15 a.m. on July 20, 2011: …
Read More Reinsurance Association of America’s Re Underwriting Conference – July 20, 2011 (New York)

BP Plc (BP) wants to significantly limit future claims related to its Deepwater Horizon disaster as the region’s economy recovers, the oil company said in a document made public on Friday and reported by Reuters. …
Read More Deepwater Horizon: BP Asserts Gulf Has Recovered, Wants to Cut “Future Loss” Claims

Transocean Ltd. said Friday that insurers of its sunken Deepwater Horizon drilling rig have asked a federal judge to decide if BP Plc and other owners of the Macondo well are entitled to any insurance coverage for the April 20, 2010 disaster. …
Read More Deepwater Horizon: Transocean’s Insurers Seek Federal Court Opinion on Payment to BP

The process of high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing, or “hydrofracking,” was first used commercially by Halliburton in 1949. It involves injecting millions of gallons of water, mixed with sand and chemicals, deep into the ground at high pressure in order to break up dense shale rock formations and release trapped natural gas to the surface.  The risks associated with hydrofracking, however, are numerous and diverse, affecting every stage of the process from transporting and drilling to waste storage and disposal. …
Read More “The Risks of Hydrofracking” and “Insurance for Hydrofracking”

Business partners BHP Billiton Ltd. and Chesapeake Energy Corp. were recently hit with a series of proposed class actions in Arkansas alleging their hydraulic fracturing (“hydrofracking”) operations and compression stations are contaminating nearby groundwater, soil, water wells and air as well as causing dangerous seismic activity. …
Read More Hydrofracking: Recent Flurry of Class Actions in Arkansas

A hydrofracking well exploded near Leroy Township, Pennsylvania on Tuesday, spilling chemically treated water into a nearby creek that feeds the Susquehanna River and prompting the evacuation of certain residents.  The incident occurred while a crew from Chesapeake Energy Corporation was in the midst of “fracking” the well, a method by which one injects a mixture of water, sand and chemicals into dense rock at high pressures in order to release oil and gas.  The cause of the spill was reportedly due to equipment failure. …
Read More Breaking News: Hydrofracking-Related Spill in Pennsylvania

The U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday questioned whether a common law public nuisance suit against major greenhouse gas emitters was treading on territory usually, and perhaps more fittingly, handled by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). …
Read More U.S. Supreme Court Takes Up Climate Change Public Nuisance Suit