LSI 2010 NRD Santa Fe final conference binder 072110.pdf

Angus Macbeth of Sidley Austin LLP Speaker 24a: 6
HABITAT EQUIVALENCY ANALYSIS
U.S. v. Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Co., 259 F.3d 1300, 1305 (11 Cir.
2001)
Destruction of sea bottom in Florida Keys Marine Sanctuary when tug boat ran
aground.
HEA used to scale or quantify the size of the equivalent area to be restored and,
therefore, to quantify the damages for lost interim services and the acquisition of
equivalent resources.
Challenged pursuant to Daubert and upheld.
Same result in U.S. v. Fisher, 174 F.3d 201 (11 Cir. 1999)
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2008 AMENDMENT OF INTERIOR’S NRD
ASSESSMENT REGULATIONS
Providing a “restoration-based” approach to all damages.
“Methodologies that compare losses arising from resource injury to gains expected from restoration
actions are frequently simpler and more transparent than methodologies used to measure the
economic value of losses.”
Four examples of project-based assessment methodologies:
> Conjoint analysis;
> Habitat equivalency analysis;
> Resource equivalency analysis;
> Random utility analysis.
Any methodology that meets “acceptance criteria” permitted – feasibility and reliability, reasonable
cost, avoidance of double counting, cost effectiveness.
Comparing functional losses from resource injuries to functional gains expected from restoration
actions should reduce effort to recover monetary value of passive economic losses.
73 Fed. Reg. 57259 (Oct. 2, 2008)
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Law Seminars International | Natural Resource Damages | 07/16/10 in Santa Fe, NM