Liability: The owner is responsible for the debt of the business. There is no differential made from the business to the owner. If the business is unable to pay, debtors can secure payment from the owner and their personal assets.…
ASC 410 is the accounting standard codification that represents asset retirement and environmental obligations. Under ASC 410, there are two main subtopics which are asset retirement obligations and environmental obligations. Asset retirement obligations are legal obligations that may exist in connection with an entity’s retirement of a tangible long-lived asset. These legal obligations may arise when the entity acquires, constructs, or develops a long-lived asset, or operates a long-lived asset under normal conditions. However, it does not occur solely from an entity’s plan to dispose of a long-lived asset. Environmental obligations are environmental remediation liabilities that relate to pollution arising from a prior act, generally as a result of the provisions of laws and regulations.…
A financial liability exists when one company has a liability and another entity has a financial asset. Non-financial liabilities are all other liabilities; no corresponding financial asset arises on the books of the counter-party. Examples include liabilities for environmental remediation, lawsuits and warranties. [Other examples are acceptable.] Liabilities must be probable of payment (>50% probability) to be recognized. Amounts are…
U.S Environmental Protection Agency. (2010, March 18). Superfund. Retrieved June 12, 2010, from Cleaning Up the Nation 's Hazardous Waste Sites: http://www.epa.gov/superfund/…
The Superfund Site cleanup actions are the responsibility of the Potentially Responsible Parties (PRP) or the generators and transporters of the hazardous waste, and the owners and operators of a site. If the PRP refuse to lead the cleanup the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will lead the remedial actions and then sue the PRP for reimbursement.…
Polluter Corp. is a company that operates three plants in the United States. They make different cleaning products which are sold to customers. The U.S. government sells or gives out emissions allowances to companies, including Polluter Corp., which determines a set amount of pollutants and greenhouse gases a company can let into the environment. These are given out to help discourage pollution by companies. “EA’s” are assigned a year that a company can use in, and they also can be bought and/or swapped with other EA’s from different companies, as long as the swapped EA’s have the same usage year. When the usage year for the EA is over, they are returned to the government. If the company emits more pollution that the allowed amount on the EA, then the company will pay a fine. Polluter has recorded their EA’s as intangible assets.…
FuelSource should recognize a provision for cleanup costs it may incur in Dirty Country in reporting to its U.K. parent under IFRSs and in reporting to its U.S.-based lender in accordance with U.S. GAAP. An obligation has arisen as a result of past occurrences of soil contamination. FuelSource has constructive obligation because of the widely published policy of both…
It is hard to think of a government program with a wider gulf between ambitions and results than Superfund, the program enacted in 1980 to clean up thousands of toxic waste dumps across America. The Clinton Administration now advances a promising plan to redo that law. With health care on the agenda, Congress may not have the political stamina to address Superfund. But it should; every day that the present law is in operation represents another day of misdirected resources.…
FuelSource Co. causes contamination and operates in Dirty Country where there is no environmental legislation. However, FuelSource Co. has a widely published environmental policy in which it undertakes to clean up all contamination that it causes and a record of honoring this published policy. Thus, it gives rise to a constructive obligation because the conduct of FuelSource Co. has created a valid expectation on the part of those affected by it that it will clean up contamination (IAS 37-17/ASC 450-20). It is probable that an outflow of resources embodying economic benefits to settle that obligation will occur (IAS 37-23). Also, the amount of the obligation or loss can be estimated reliably with the best estimate of…
Robert T, N. Thomas W C (2003): Taming regulation: superfund and the challenge of regulatory…
Superfund is the name given to the environmental program established to address abandoned hazardous waste sites. It is also the name of the fund established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980, as amended (CERCLA statute). This law was enacted in the wake of the discovery of toxic waste dumps such as Love Canal and Times Beach in the 1970s. It allows the EPA to clean up such sites and to compel responsible parties to perform cleanups or reimburse the government for EPA-lead…
Duff = “responsibility is a necessary but not a sufficient condition of liability” An actor is responsible when they are sufficiently blameworthy in causing the harm or committing the wrong = we blame those who have control over their actions (committing a crime is a mental process)…
Economy is a main component is of having a healthy society not suffering from unemployment and inflation. How is it possible to have social responsible executives acting as agents and not as political officials? (Freidman, 1970).…
An injured party may sue a business polluter in tort under the negligence and strict liability theories.…
Environmental crime is a serious and growing concern at national as well as international level, and one which takes many different forms. Environmental crime in broad terms means an act which is committed with the intention of damaging or causing damage to the ecological and biological systems to ensure business or personal benefit. The types of acts commonly recognised as environmental crime are: pollution or other contamination of air, land and water; illegal discharge, dumping and transport of, or trade in, hazardous and other regulated waste; illegal trade in ozone-depleting substances; illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing; illegal trade in (protected) flora and fauna and harms to biodiversity; and illegal logging and timber trade.…