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Program Details
2026-12-10 12:00:00
Over 1,000+ webinars
Course Overview
2026-12-10 12:00:00
2h CLE Credits
Intermediate
2
This session examines the threshold obstacles facing plaintiff’s counsel in Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act citizen suits in 2026, beginning with the diligent-prosecution bar. Attorneys will learn how to draft NOIs and complaints to survive jurisdiction-specific diligent-prosecution challenges, how to assess circuit-specific risk on the comparability and timing questions, and how the Ninth Circuit’s ruling in Port of Tacoma v. Puget Soundkeeper Alliance—allowing enforcement of state-law-only permit conditions—shapes where and how a citizen suit is filed. Attendees will leave with concrete pleading frameworks, NOI drafting checklists, and a current map of the circuit split governing when and how state enforcement actions foreclose citizen-suit remedies.
Derek TeaneyThis session covers the three core remedial battlegrounds in Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act citizen suits: calculating and proving civil penalties, establishing irreparable harm for injunctive relief in light of the Fourth Circuit’s June 2026 Chemours decision, and recovering attorney fees and litigation costs under the CWA § 505(d) and CAA § 304(d) fee-shifting framework. Attorneys will learn how courts apply the economic-benefit methodology for penalties, why the Chemours holding requires individualized member harm evidence rather than reliance on permit violations alone, and how Buckhannon’s judicially-sanctioned-change requirement governs fee recovery strategy. Practitioners gain the analytical tools to build a complete remedial record from filing through judgment in citizen suit enforcement.
Allan Kanner
Appalachian Mountain Advocates

Kanner & Whiteley, L.L.C.

Appalachian Mountain Advocates
Derek Teaney litigates Clean Water Act citizen suits and related enforcement actions for conservation groups across Appalachia. He argued West Virginia Rivers Coalition v. The Chemours Company FC, LLC before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on behalf of the Rivers Coalition, the Clean Water Act citizen suit over PFAS discharges that the court decided on June 3, 2026, and in 2024 he represented the West Virginia Rivers Coalition and other groups in a federal citizen suit alleging that EPA violated the Clean Water Act in its oversight of the Lower Guyandotte River watershed. He has described citizen suits as a crucial tool for environmental protection, designed by Congress so that private attorneys general can act when regulators do not.

Kanner & Whiteley, L.L.C.
Allan Kanner litigates environmental cases on behalf of public entities and conservation organizations. He is co-counsel to Conservation Law Foundation in CLF v. Pike Fuels Limited Partnership, a Clean Water Act citizen suit in which the District of Connecticut granted summary judgment in July 2026 on a continuing violation at a New Haven Harbor petroleum terminal, and he represents Conservation Law Foundation in its case against ExxonMobil over climate change effects. He founded Kanner & Whiteley in New Orleans in 1981 and has built a national practice in complex litigation, environmental law, and consumer fraud.

Appalachian Mountain Advocates
Derek Teaney litigates Clean Water Act citizen suits and related enforcement actions for conservation groups across Appalachia. He argued West Virginia Rivers Coalition v. The Chemours Company FC, LLC before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on behalf of the Rivers Coalition, the Clean Water Act citizen suit over PFAS discharges that the court decided on June 3, 2026, and in 2024 he represented the West Virginia Rivers Coalition and other groups in a federal citizen suit alleging that EPA violated the Clean Water Act in its oversight of the Lower Guyandotte River watershed. He has described citizen suits as a crucial tool for environmental protection, designed by Congress so that private attorneys general can act when regulators do not.

Kanner & Whiteley, L.L.C.
Allan Kanner litigates environmental cases on behalf of public entities and conservation organizations. He is co-counsel to Conservation Law Foundation in CLF v. Pike Fuels Limited Partnership, a Clean Water Act citizen suit in which the District of Connecticut granted summary judgment in July 2026 on a continuing violation at a New Haven Harbor petroleum terminal, and he represents Conservation Law Foundation in its case against ExxonMobil over climate change effects. He founded Kanner & Whiteley in New Orleans in 1981 and has built a national practice in complex litigation, environmental law, and consumer fraud.
Requirements
The Alabama State Bar MCLE Commission requires attorneys to complete 12 credits, including 1 ethics, by December 31 of each year. All credits must be reported by February 15 of the following year. A maximum of 12 credits, including 1 ethics credit, may be carried over for 1 year only.
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