Policy & Enforcement Briefing: EU Anti-Dumping Case, Obama Touts Policies, Dole Settles

The EU began a broad investigation into whether Chinese companies have exported solar power equipment for less than manufacturing costs. The case covers imports from China worth €21 ($26.5) billion last year, or 6.5 percent of all EU imports of Chinese goods. It would be the biggest ever anti-dumping investigation by value, the New York Times said.

President Obama, while accepting his presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention, said that the 2012 election is pivotal in the battle against climate change. Obama noted US carbon emission reductions as a result of his policies, but also expressed support for continued expansion of domestic oil drilling, and continued natural gas development, The Hill said.

Quebec’s new government may try to raise the province’s GHG emissions reduction target to 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. The new leadership is expected to preserve plans to launch a carbon market and link to California’s next year. The left-leaning, separatist Parti Quebecois last week won a four-seat edge over the incumbent Liberal party for control of a minority government in the province legislature, Reuters said.

US fruit company Dole has reached an agreement to settle 38 lawsuits filed in the US and Nicaragua alleging pesticide-related injuries. The complaints were about a pesticide banned in 1977 – dibromochloropropane (DBCP) – which was used for more than two decades to control worms on crops. The terminated lawsuits included two Nicaraguan judgments totaling $907.5 million, the AFP reports.

JPMorgan Chase Bank has reimbursed the federal government $1.28 million for EPA cleanup costs associated with the Browning Lumber Company Superfund Site in rural Bald Knob, Boone County, W.Va. The site became contaminated after decades-long wood-treating activities using chromated copper arsenate; the bank is the corporate successor to a former site owner, the agency said.

EPA has temporarily waived certain federal clean gasoline requirements for gasoline sold and distributed in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina and North Carolina. Hurricane Isaac has caused continuing refinery outages and slower-than-expected restarts of other Gulf-area refineries, so there will not be an adequate supply of low Reid Vapor Pressure “summertime gasoline” for these states through Sept 15, the agency said.

The EPA has reached a settlement with recreational vehicle manufacturer American Suzuki Motor Corporation and Suzuki Motor Corporation. The firm will pay an $885,000 penalty for allegedly importing and selling 25,458 uncertified all-terrain vehicles and off-road motorcycles in the US in violation of the Clean Air Act. The settlement also requires Suzuki to implement three emission mitigation projects to reduce hydrocarbon emissions by 210 tons or more, the agency said.

Partially redacted US government court documents, for its case against BP over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster, have now been made public in full. In the documents, the Justice Department says BP executives wanted to concentrate blame for the spill on blue collar rig workers in order to save themselves, Reuters reports.