Latest Pollution Headlines
All the headlines from our Pollution Topic Page, ordered by recency.
WIAA Insurance Services Adds Access to Environmental Risk Program
May 16 2008 // Rancho Cordova, Calif.-based WIAA Insurance Services has expanded its strategic partnership with San Diego-based Barney & Barney LLC to include a specialty line insurance program with its environmental risk program....
Picher, Okla., Home of Superfund Site, Won’t be Rebuilt, Officials Say
May 15 2008 // State and federal officials toured Picher, Okla., which was ravaged by a tornado on May 10, and essentially drilled the final nail into its coffin. Any financial aid sent to the 800-person community, they said, will only...
Willis Shows Off New London Headquarters Building
May 14 2008 // Since Joe Plumeri took over as Chairman and CEO of Willis in 2000, he’s guided the international broker through turbulent times, making a number of radical and innovative changes along the way. Nowhere is his...
People
May 5 2008 // Patrick G. Ryan, founder and executive chairman Aon Corp., said he intends to retire Aug. 1, 2008. Ryan said the firm’s transition to a new management team under CEO Greg Case is complete. Ryan founded Aon, which has...
Earthquakes Raise Questions of Future Shocks, Public Readiness
May 5 2008 // Just weeks after earthquakes rattled Nevada, the Midwest and the coast of Oregon, and on the heels of the 102nd anniversary of San Francisco’s 1906 earthquake, the public, government officials and insurance industry...
Recycling Plant Fire in South Carolina Creates Environmental Hazard
May 1 2008 // State environmental officials say runoff from the thousands of gallons of water sprayed on a fire at a South Carolina recycling plant may have killed hundreds of fish. The facility where plastic bottles and cardboard are...
Insurance- ‘Green’ Coalition Opposes Expanding Government Catastrophe Bailouts
Apr 30 2008 // An unusual alliance of insurance and environmental groups is urging lawmakers to focus on policies that encourage property mitigation and environmental protection in catastrophe-prone areas, rather than expanding the...
Zurich Introduces New Environmental Liability Policy
Apr 24 2008 // Zurich recently announced that its North American Environmental business unit has added an environmental liability policy named Z Choice to its portfolio of insurance solutions. This menu-driven form enables policyholders...
Mass. Law Limiting Liability for Brownfields Transforms Landscape
Apr 22 2008 // Growing up in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Henry Wainer remembers driving past the old Alden Corrugated Container Co. on trips out of the city. Then one day, the single-story cardboard box factory burned. The city bulldozed...
USGS: Earthquakes Serious Threat in 46 States, Ups Risks in Washington, Oregon
Apr 22 2008 // Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have updated the USGS National Seismic Hazard Maps, and noted that earthquakes remain a serious threat in 46 of the United States. For some areas such as western Oregon and...
Ohio Environmental Officials Say Cleanup from 1999 Tire Fire Finished
Apr 17 2008 // After nine years and more than $32 million, the clean up of Ohio’s largest tire fire has been completed. Ohio Environmental Protection Agency spokeswoman Dina Pierce says nothing remains of the millions of scrap...
Elevated Lead Levels Force Closing of 2 N.J. Artificial Turf Ballfields
Apr 17 2008 // Two New Jersey sports fields were closed this week after tests of their artificial turf turned up unsafe levels of lead. It’s the second time since December that a ballfield in the state has been closed over concerns...
Zurich Names Patton, Constantinou to Climate Initiative Team
Apr 14 2008 // Zurich Financial Services Group announced the appointment of Lindene Patton and Elpida Constantinou to key positions within its Climate Office, both will report to Michael Kerner, Global Chief Underwriting Officer and Head...
AIG Names Executives for New Commercial Insurance Group
Apr 11 2008 // American International Group, Inc. (AIG) has named several executives to positions within its new AIG Commercial Insurance Group, formerly known as the Domestic Brokerage Group. AIG Commercial Insurance is part of the...
Update: Tennessee Residents Try to Recover after Oil Well Explosion
Apr 8 2008 // Tennessee resident, Irene Daugherty, is home but still shaken after an oil well explosion just 60 yards from her front door melted the siding on her manufactured home and transformed the landscape into charred stumps and...
Willis Publishes Marketplace Analysis
Apr 7 2008 // Willis Group Holding announced the release of the Spring 2008 edition of its series “Marketplace Realities and Risk Management Solutions.” The articles focus on important developments in Environmental, Surety,...
Insurers Could Pay Up to $730 Million for Cleanup
Apr 7 2008 // Nine insurance companies should cover the costs assessed to the former Appleton Papers Inc. for cleanup of the industrial chemical PCBs in the Lower Fox River, a jury recently decided. After a five-week trial, the jury...
U.S. Criticizes Chinese Insurers, Other Firms for Avoiding Competition
Apr 4 2008 // Influential Chinese companies that want to avoid competition are the biggest threat to more economic reform in China, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Thursday. Paulson’s comment echoed complaints by...
ACE China Partner to Offer Pollution Coverage
Mar 31 2008 // The ACE Group of Companies announced that Huatai Insurance Company of China Limited, an ACE Group strategic partner, has received approval from the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) to become one of the first...
Update: Tennessee Oil Well Fire Doused, Residents Asked to Stay Away
Mar 27 2008 // A nearly week-old oil well fire in Anderson County, Tenn. was extinguished Tuesday, but officials worried about the danger of lingering natural gas vapors asked residents to stay away. A spokeswoman for the Environmental...
