Texas Civil Justice League
HEARING ALERT 

Thank you to all who have signed witness cards for our bills!  It is tremendously helpful to show cross-industry business support for liability and legal reform issues, and your support is greatly appreciated.


 

Texas Senate Committee on Natural Resources & Economic Development
Tuesday, April 28, 2015 at 9:00am/ADJ
E1.012

Please attend the hearing or send a representative to sign a card in support of SB 1509 by Hancock.

SB 1509 relating to maximum penalties for certain environmental violations.

Good Faith Remediation
HB 1794 by Geren Will be heard on the House floor Monday, April 27, 2015.
SB 1509 by Hancock Will be heard in Senate Natural Resources & Economic Development on Tuesday, April 28, 2015.

(TCJL PROGRAM) TCJL SUPPORTS.  Recent lawsuits have sought to collect hundreds of millions of dollars of civil penalties against Texas businesses for alleged environmental violations going back for decades—even though the businesses have been working with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to remediate the problem and, in some cases, did not even own the property when the alleged violations occurred. In one of the cases, a jury rejected the plaintiff’s argument that the business should pay billions even though it spent millions to clean up a mess that it inherited from another company. The proposed legislation will address this type of lawsuit abuse by assuring that businesses pay punitive civil penalties only for their own conduct, not for the actions of others. The legislation will also assure that businesses that remediate in good faith will not be punished as long as they comply with applicable state enforcement orders.

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