Overview

In Asarco, LLC v. Noranda Mining, Inc., the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals held that representations made to the bankruptcy court that the Debtor’s settlement of environmental claims reflected only the Debtor’s share of the cleanup costs did not judicially estop the Debtor from brining a contribution claim against another potentially responsible party for those same costs.

ECOtality, an electric vehicle charging station manufacturer and a recipient of 2009 stimulus package Department of Energy grants, filed for bankruptcy on September 17. The company received $100.2 million in grants, but the Department froze the remaining $2.5 million in grants on August 8.

On March 20, Suntech, a Chinese solar manufacturing company, declared bankruptcy. Questions have arisen on how the country’s solar industry will now cope with overcapacity issues which stem from a decline in demand from Europe. The declaration comes a week after the company announced it had defaulted on $541 million of bonds.