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Energy
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May 17, 2013
Donziger Attys Free To Exit Chevron Racketeering Suit
Attorneys for Steven Donziger, the lawyer seeking to enforce a $19 billion pollution judgment against Chevron Corp. over drilling activities in Ecuador, got the green light on Friday to withdraw from the oil giant's racketeering suit against Donziger.
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May 17, 2013
T. Boone Pickens Cleared To Sue Son For Tell-All Blog
A Texas state judge on Friday ruled energy magnate T. Boone Pickens can proceed with a defamation and invasion of privacy suit against his son for a tell-all family blog, denying a motion to dismiss the case under a state statute protecting free speech.
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May 17, 2013
Trans Adriatic Gas Pipeline Gets Crucial EU Approval
The European Commission has formally approved the Trans Adriatic Pipeline’s application for a third-party access exemption, which will allow it to export gas from Azerbaijan to Europe for a period of 25 years, TAP announced Friday.
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May 17, 2013
OSHA Backs Fired Nuke Plant Engineer In Whistleblower Case
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Wednesday ordered Enercon Services Inc. to reinstate an engineer who alleged he was fired after complaining about hazardous conditions at a Kansas nuclear plant.
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May 17, 2013
Revised Federal Fracking Rule Gives Industry Breathing Room
While oil and gas operators may grumble about the Obama administration's revised hydraulic fracturing rule creating another layer of regulations, attorneys say the industry should be pleased that the current version strives for greater harmony with well-established state regulations and imposes less onerous requirements than the previous edition.
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May 17, 2013
Texas Joins Other Gulf States, Hits BP With Deepwater Suit
Texas became the fifth state to take BP PLC to court over the massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill, lodging an enforcement action against the company Friday demanding civil penalties and economic damages caused by the estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil released into the Gulf of Mexico.
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May 17, 2013
Continental Ducks Shareholder Suit Over $313M Oil Asset Buy
An Oklahoma federal judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit accusing Continental Resources Inc. of withholding information from shareholders about a $313 million oil assets acquisition, ruling that Continental executives didn't breach their fiduciary duties because a proxy statement contained enough information about the deal.
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May 17, 2013
CH2M Can't Get Additional Fees For $2.7B Cleanup, DOE Says
A review conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy over a $2.7 billion contract awarded to a CH2M Hill company for environmental cleanup of the Idaho National Laboratory nuclear research facility site has found that the contractor isn't entitled to additional fees based on the contract's nontarget work.
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May 17, 2013
Eversheds Opens In Beijing With Ex-Morgan Lewis Partner
U.K-based Eversheds LLP will launch its new Beijing office on Monday with an energy expert from Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP, the firm announced Friday.
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May 17, 2013
Sullivan & Worcester Snags Leading Energy Finance Partner
Sullivan & Worcester LLP has bolstered its environment, energy and natural resources group in its Washington, D.C., office with a veteran lawyer experienced in attracting moneyed partners while designing renewable energy project financings, the law firm announced Thursday.
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May 17, 2013
Pa. Rep. Wants More Clarity In Royalty Checks To Gas Lessors
A Pennsylvania state lawmaker introduced legislation on Thursday designed to ensure that deductions taken out of royalty checks issued to landowners who lease their properties to gas drillers are clearly broken down.
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May 17, 2013
FTC Clears Tesoro's $2B Deal For BP Refining Assets
Energy company Tesoro Corp. received a go-ahead Friday from U.S. antitrust regulators for its proposed purchase of BP PLC's Southern California refining and marketing operations, a deal worth more than $2 billion that includes the acquisition of the state's largest oil refinery.
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May 17, 2013
Patriot Coal Can Pay $7M In Bonuses Despite Union Protest
A Missouri federal judge ruled Thursday that bankrupt Patriot Coal Corp. can pay up to $6.9 million in bonuses to key employees over the objection of a miners union that said the payouts unfairly reward the highest-paid employees while the company cuts benefits for everyone else.
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May 17, 2013
Icahn Loses Transocean Dividend Fight, But Wins Board Seat
Shareholders of offshore oil rigging giant Transocean Ltd. voted Friday to approve its board’s dividend proposal of $2.24 per share, rejecting activist investor Carl Icahn’s proposal for an annual dividend of $4 per share but electing one of his nominees to the board.
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May 17, 2013
DOE Approves 2nd LNG Foreign Export License In Texas
Texas-based Freeport LNG Extraction LP on Friday became the second U.S. liquefied natural gas producer to receive U.S. Department of Energy approval to export domestically produced natural gas to countries outside the nation's free trade agreements, the department said.
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May 17, 2013
Bill Would Up Domestic Ethanol By Easing Cellulosic Mandate
A pair of U.S. senators on Thursday became the latest lawmakers to push for reforms to the federal renewable fuels standard program, introducing a bill aimed at allowing more domestic ethanol to be blended into the fuel supply by removing incentives for foreign ethanol imports.
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May 17, 2013
Steptoe Nabs Trio Of Patent Litigators For Chicago Office
Steptoe & Johnson LLP has strengthened its intellectual property practice in Chicago with the addition of three patent litigators with experience in the medical device and energy industries, it announced Thursday.
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May 17, 2013
Enviros Sue To Block Tenn. Mountaintop-Removal Projects
Environmental groups including the Sierra Club sued the U.S. Interior Department in Tennessee federal court on Thursday, claiming the agency approved two mountaintop-removal coal mining projects in the state without properly considering their impact on two protected species of fish.
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May 17, 2013
Secure Energy Loses D&O Coverage For $4M Suit After Delay
A Missouri federal court ruled Wednesday that Secure Energy Inc. could not win coverage under directors and officers policies for a $3.8 million breach of contract suit because it waited too long to report the claim, holding that it was irrelevant whether the late notice actually prejudiced the insurer.
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May 17, 2013
GMX Senior Lenders Offer $338M In Stalking Horse Bid
Bankrupt oil and gas producer GMX Resources Inc. on Thursday unveiled a new $338 million stalking horse bid for substantially all of its assets to a group of senior lenders, telling an Oklahoma bankruptcy court that it has not been able to raise enough capital elsewhere to continue operating.
Expert Analysis
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Rise Of The Machines — Predictive Coding Goes Mainstream
The pros of using predictive coding far outweigh the cons. Given the heavy pressure on law firms and in-house counsel to reduce discovery costs, as well as the Justice Department's recent stance on the subject, it appears predictive coding will continue to emerge from the obscure world of legal technology to the mainstream of legal practice, say Michael Moscato and Myles Bartley of Curtis Mallet-Prevost Colt & Mosle LLP.
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The Oil And Gas Operator's Texas Advantage
The interpretation by the Supreme Court of Texas in Reeder v. Wood County Energy LLC grants vast protection to oil and gas operators, but by doing so, it is perceived by some as muddling the differences between tort and contract law, says Michael Bolton and Kate Kalanick of Faegre Baker Daniels LLP.
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4th Circ. Weighs In On Bona Fide Purchaser Defense
The Fourth Circuit recently issued a ruling in PCS Nitrogen Inc. v. Ashley II of Charleston that may limit the availability of the bona fide prospective purchaser defense. By narrowly construing one of the elements of the BFPP defense, the court has underscored the importance of strict compliance with all requirements of the defense, say attorneys with K&L Gates LLP.
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Another Challenge To Calif. Cap-And-Trade Law
The California Air Resources Board has again been sued over its implementation of the Global Warming Solutions Act in Morning Star Packing Co., et al. v. CARB, which resembles an earlier action brought by the California Chamber of Commerce. Petitioners of both cases face the difficult challenge of convincing the court to derail a massive regulatory scheme that is now well underway, say attorneys with Marten Law PLLC.
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The Who, What And Why Of Public-Private Partnerships
Public-private partnerships have been used in a wide range of sectors to provide public services, from power plants and railroads to hospitals and sanitation plants. Yet there are a variety of potential contractual arrangements and the financing of a PPP can be complex, say Maryam Khosharay and Herbert Glaser of Haynes and Boone LLP.
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Latest In EPA's Series Of Aggressive Coal Plant Rules
Recently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced proposed technology-based effluent limitation guidelines and standards for steam electric power-generating units. These guidelines will certainly impose significant costs, and when coupled with the cost of the EPA’s rules under the Clean Air Act, there can be little question that some coal-fired facilities will close as a result, say attorneys with Latham & Watkins LLP.
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E-Discovery In The Cloud: Who Can Get Your Data?
Many lawyers are asking whether placing electronically stored information in the cloud could inadvertently waive the attorney-client privilege and whether the government or a civil litigant could obtain ESI directly from a cloud service provider. In answering these questions, there are a number of aspects of the cloud worth considering, say Timothy Broas and Matthew Saxon of Winston & Strawn LLP.
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5 Reasons For Optimism In The Venture Capital Community
Not every company can be the next Facebook. But thankfully, for many startups, generating one billion users is not the end goal, nor should it be. Enter “narrowcasting” — one of a few reasons to be optimistic about venture capital, despite the first quarter of 2013 being the slowest for fundraising since 2002, says David Kaufman of Thompson Coburn LLP.
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Pros And Cons Of Recent Renewable Energy Bill
While the recently introduced bill permitting renewable energy projects to use a master limited partnership structure seems like good policy, there is concern that opening the MLP franchise to projects without a strong track record of producing steady cash flows could result in failed projects and cast a pall over the entire investment category, say attorneys with Sidley Austin LLP.
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Flaws In NY Court's Ruling Of Recent Natural Gas Cases
Recently, a New York appellate court upheld lower court decisions in Norse Energy Corp. USA v. Town of Dryden and Cooperstown Holstein Corp. v. Town of Middlefield, which found municipal bans on natural gas development to be a valid exercise of home rule. There are a number of reasons, however, that the court should have instead overturned these decisions, says Yvonne Hennessey of Hiscock & Barclay LLP.