LSI 2010 NRD Santa Fe final conference binder 072110.pdf

Brian D. Israel of Arnold & Porter LLP Speaker 5a: 15
New Jersey v. New Jersey Cent. Light & Power Co.
(New Jersey Supreme Court 1976)
Holding: the state had failed to show cause-in-fact:
The temperature in the creek would have dropped in
any case, due to changes in the tide and dissipation
of warm water:
“Although pumping [cold] water into Oyster Creek
may have accelerated the temperature drop, the
State produced no competent evidence that the
effect on the menhaden would have been any
different in the absence of pumping.”
“The claim that the State, as Parens patriae or as
public trustee, had established a good cause of
action for money damages must fall . . . because of
the failure to prove proximate cause.”
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29
The “Mono Lake” case
(California Supreme Court 1983)
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30
Law Seminars International | Natural Resource Damages | 07/15/10 in Santa Fe, NM