What started on 18 September 2015, when the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a notice of violation of the Clean Air Act to German automaker Volkswagen Group, that had an American attorney, specializing in mediation and alternative dispute resolution oversee their U.S. compensation of VW diesel owners affected?
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Kenneth Feinberg Kenneth Roy Feinberg (born October 23, 1945) is an American attorney, specializing in mediation and alternative dispute resolution. Feinberg was appointed Special Master of the U.S. government's September 11th Victim Compensation Fund and served as the Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation. Additionally, Feinberg served as the government-appointed administrator of the BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster Victim Compensation Fund. Feinberg was appointed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to administer the One Fund—the victim assistance fund established in the wake of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. Feinberg was also retained by General Motors to assist in their recall response and by Volkswagen to oversee their U.S. compensation of VW diesel owners affected by the Volkswagen emissions scandal. Kenneth Feinberg is also an adjunct professor at the Columbia University School of Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, New York University School of Law, the University of Virginia School of Law and at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.
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Volkswagen emissions scandal The Volkswagen emissions scandal (also called "emissionsgate" or "dieselgate") started on 18 September 2015, when the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a notice of violation of the Clean Air Act to German automaker Volkswagen Group. The agency had found that Volkswagen had intentionally programmed turbocharged direct injection (TDI) diesel engines to activate some emissions controls only during laboratory emissions testing. The programming caused the vehicles' NO output to meet US standards during regulatory testing but emit up to 40 times more NO in real-world driving. Volkswagen deployed this programming in about eleven million cars worldwide, and 500,000 in the United States, during model years 2009 through 2015.
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Deregistered and unregistered Australian unions Australian industrial relations law maintains a system of compulsory arbitration in the settlement of industrial disputes between employers, employees, and their respective registered industrial associations. Associations of employers or employees must be "registered" by the relevant Industrial Relations Commission in order to have disputes heard before that commission. However, in the Fair Work Commission individuals may appoint an unregistered/deregistered industrial organisation to represent them in any disputes.
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Volkswagen Act The Volkswagen Act is a set of German federal laws enacted in 1960, regulating the privatization of Volkswagenwerk GmbH into Volkswagen AG. In order to maintain government control in the privately owned company, it stipulated that the votings on major shareholder meeting resolutions require 4/5th(80%) agreement. This part of the law was deemed to violate the "free movement of capital" principle of European company law by EU members. After a series of challenges by EU from 2007 to 2013, the German parliament finally amended the part in 2013 to EU court satisfaction.
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National Ambient Air Quality Standards The US National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS, pronounced \'naks\) are standards established by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under authority of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.) that apply for outdoor air throughout the country. Primary standards are designed to protect human health, with an adequate margin of safety, including sensitive populations such as children, the elderly, and individuals suffering from respiratory diseases. Secondary standards are designed to protect public welfare (including effects on soils, water, crops, vegetation, man-made materials, animals, wildlife, weather, visibility, and climate), damage to property, transportation hazards, economic values, and personal comfort and well-being from any known or anticipated adverse effects of a pollutant. A district meeting a given standard is known as an "attainment area" for that standard, and otherwise a "non-attainment area".
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Shell Canada lawsuit The Shell Canada Lawsuit was a class action suit filed against Shell Canada Limited on July 18, 2003, on behalf of customers who purchased "Bronze" (regular-grade) gasoline products, to which Shell Canada added an "additive", between March 1, 2001 and April 15, 2002. This additive allegedly caused damage to the fuel supply system of many cars, most commonly of Acura, Chrysler, Dodge, Ford, General Motors, Hyundai and Volvo brands. While Shell Canada estimated that between 100,000 and 200,000 customers bought "Bronze" products during that period, it is unknown how many total vehicles were affected.
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Federal Office for the Environment The Federal Office for the Environment (German: "Bundesamt für Umwelt" ; French: "Office fédéral de l'environnement" ; Italian: "Ufficio federale dell'ambiente" ) is the Swiss environmental agency, a division of the Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications. It is responsible for matters of the environment, including the protection of plants and animals and the protection against noise, air pollution or natural hazards.
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Tibble v. Edison International Tibble v. Edison International, 575 U.S. ___ (2015) , was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that "because a fiduciary normally has a continuing duty to monitor investments and remove imprudent ones, a plaintiff may allege that a fiduciary breached a duty of prudence by failing to properly monitor investments and remove imprudent ones. Such a claim is timely as long it is filed within six years of the alleged breach of continuing duty."
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Certified Automotive Parts Association The Certified Automotive Parts Association (CAPA) is a non-profit organization established in 1987 and based in Washington, DC, United States, to develop and oversee a test program guaranteeing the suitability and quality of automotive parts. CAPA was created by automobile insurance companies. It was created to control the market on parts used by insurance company contracted collision shops. It gave the insurance companies an alternative to high priced OEM parts. CAPA encourages competition in the marketplace in the hope that their program will ultimately reduce expense to the consumer and the industry while increasing and assuring part quality.
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Paul Sprenger Paul C. Sprenger (September 8, 1940 – December 29, 2014) was an American attorney. Sprenger is best known as lead counsel of "Jenson v. Eveleth Taconite Co.", a discrimination case involving female iron miners in Minnesota.
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Lisa P. Jackson Lisa Perez Jackson (born February 8, 1962) is an American chemical engineer who served as the Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from 2009 to 2013. In May 2013, it was announced that Jackson would be joining Apple Inc. as their environmental director.
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Polluter pays principle In environmental law, the polluter pays principle is enacted to make the party responsible for producing pollution responsible for paying for the damage done to the natural environment. It is regarded as a regional custom because of the strong support it has received in most Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and European Community (EC) countries. It is a fundamental principle in US environmental law.
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Environmental Quality Improvement Act The Environmental Quality Improvement Act of 1970 is a United States environmental law which was passed to work in conjunction with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). One of the two major purposes of the Act was to authorize the creation of an Office of Environmental Quality to provide the professional and administrative staff needed for the Council on Environmental Quality. The second major purpose was to "assure that each Federal department and agency conducting or supporting public works activities which affect the environment shall implement the policies under existing law". To accomplish these purposes, the act gave more responsibilities to the Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality in his new role as Director of the Office of Environmental Quality.
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Arbitration Fairness Act of 2011 The Arbitration Fairness Act of 2011 is a proposed law in the US Congress to reverse the effects of "14 Penn Plaza LLC v. Pyett" and "AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion". Both judgments held, 5 judges to 4 dissenting justices, that employees and consumers were not entitled to claim for rights in public courts if they had agreed to arbitration in a collective or individual agreement. The result has been negation of statutory rights by contract.
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Minnesota Pollution Control Agency The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) is a Minnesota state agency that monitors environmental quality, offers technical and financial assistance, and enforces environmental regulations for the State of Minnesota. The MPCA finds and cleans up spills and leaks that can affect public health and the environment. The MPCA staff develops statewide policies and supports environmental education, working with such partners as citizens, municipalities, businesses, environmental groups, and educators to prevent pollution and conserve resources.
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War on coal In the United States, the war on coal is a phrase used by the coal industry and its supporters to describe what they claim is an effort by the Obama administration to impose stringent regulations on coal power in the United States and thereby make such power uneconomical. Proponents of this phrase also often identify the Environmental Protection Agency as one of the chief entities waging this putative war, although Michael Grunwald has claimed that the war on coal, although real, does not primarily happen at the national level but at the state and local level, and that the "boots on the ground" in the war are lawyers from the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign. During Obama's tenure, the Obama administration denied that they were waging a war on coal, noting the possibility of upgrading older power plants with more efficient turbines, and also pointing to the possibility of carbon sequestration techniques.
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Clean Air Conservancy The Clean Air Conservancy was a United States non-profit charity devoted to protecting our planet’s clean air and slowing the pace of climate change by actively participating in pollution markets and participating in emissions trading.
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Center for Clean Air Policy The Center for Clean Air Policy (CCAP) is an independent, nonprofit think tank that was founded in 1985 in the United States. CCAP works on climate and air quality policy issues at the local, national and international levels. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., CCAP helps policy-makers around the world to develop, promote and implement market-based approaches to address climate, air quality and energy problems while trying to balance both environmental and economic interests.
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Superfund Superfund is a United States federal government program designed to fund the cleanup of sites contaminated with hazardous substances and pollutants. It was established as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). It authorizes federal natural resource agencies, primarily the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), states and Native American tribes to recover natural resource damages caused by hazardous substances, though most states have and most often use their own versions of CERCLA. CERCLA created the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). The EPA may identify parties responsible for hazardous substances releases to the environment (polluters) and either compel them to clean up the sites, or it may undertake the cleanup on its own using the Superfund (a trust fund) and costs recovered from polluters by referring to the U.S. Department of Justice.
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Alternative dispute resolution Alternative dispute resolution (ADR; known in some countries, such as India, as external dispute resolution) includes dispute resolution processes and techniques that act as a means for disagreeing parties to come to an agreement short of litigation. It is a collective term for the ways that parties can settle disputes, with (or without) the help of a third party.
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Daimler AG v. Bauman Daimler AG v. Bauman, 571 U.S. ___ (2014) , is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court answered whether an American court may exercise jurisdiction over a foreign company based on the fact that a subsidiary of the company acts on its behalf in the jurisdictional state. The court held that an American company cannot be sued for conduct occurring outside the United States and American courts do not have jurisdiction of such a claim.<ref name="http://www.forbes.com"> </ref>
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Alt National Park Service Alt National Park Service is an activist coalition comprised mainly of U.S. National Park Service employees, as well as employees of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and others. The group formed after a press ban was enacted by President Donald J. Trump that limited the use of social media accounts, such as Twitter, by governmental agencies such as the EPA and the US Department of Interior. These social media accounts mainly post pro-environmental content, often centered around the issue of climate change.