Practice Areas
Energy
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February 22, 2012
Getty Tries To Halt Suit Over Gas Station Transfers
Getty Petroleum Marketing Inc. filed suit Tuesday asking the judge handling its New York bankruptcy proceeding to block several lawsuits, including a dispute over a 2009 transfer of gas stations from Getty to then-sister company Lukoil North America LLC.
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February 22, 2012
Mining Co. Indicted Over Coal Mine Roof Collapse
A federal grand jury in Kentucky on Wednesday indicted Manalapan Mining Co. for allegedly failing to maintain safety standards in a coal mine whose roof collapsed and killed a miner last year.
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February 22, 2012
Enviros Sue EPA Over Shell's Alaskan Drilling Permits
A coalition of environmental groups launched a suit Tuesday in the Ninth Circuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over its decision to allow Royal Dutch Shell PLC to drill in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, challenging one of the first off-shore drilling permits to be issued after the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
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February 22, 2012
Oil Subsidies Will Likely Survive Tax Plan's Shift To Green
President Obama's tax reform proposal, unveiled Wednesday, will encourage investment in clean energy manufacturing, but its attempt to shift energy priorities by slashing billions of dollars in tax breaks for oil and gas companies is more likely to score political points than become law, experts said.
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February 22, 2012
Bunge Buys UK Carbon Fund As C02 Prices Plummet
U.S. agricultural commodities company Bunge Ltd. will buy London-based carbon fund manager Climate Change Capital Ltd., after the plan was approved by Britain's financial regulator earlier this week, Bunge said Wednesday.
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February 22, 2012
Kirkland Energy M&A Pro Jumps To Baker Botts
Baker Botts LLP's Washington, D.C., office has lured a former Kirkland & Ellis LLP partner with experience counseling energy companies on mergers and acquisitions, the company said Wednesday.
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February 22, 2012
Total Units To Exit FCA Suit Over Gas Royalties For $15M
Affiliates of French oil giant Total SA will pay $15 million to settle allegations in Texas federal court that they underpaid royalties owed on natural gas extracted from federal lands in violation of the False Claims Act, the U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday.
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February 22, 2012
Cobalt Reveals FCPA Probe Of Angola Oil Business
U.S. regulators have launched a formal probe into allegations that one of Cobalt International Energy Inc.’s oil drilling contractors bribed foreign officials in Angola, Cobalt said Tuesday.
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February 22, 2012
Nuclear Materials Caused Woman's Breast Cancer: Suit
Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group Inc. and Atlantic Richfield Co. were hit with a personal injury suit Wednesday by a Pennsylvania woman claiming that toxic radioactive emissions from two nuclear materials processing facilities they operated gave her breast cancer.
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February 22, 2012
Spanish Antitrust Regulator Fines Endesa €23M
Spain's competition authority on Wednesday slapped Endesa SA, one of the country’s largest power utilities, with €23 million ($30 million) in fines for allegedly abusing its dominant market position in the electricity sector.
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February 22, 2012
Ex-KBR Exec Gets Probation, Fine For Nigerian Bribes
A former executive for one-time Halliburton Co. subsidiary KBR Inc. was sentenced Wednesday in Texas federal court to one year of unsupervised probation and a $20,000 fine for his part in a scheme to bribe Nigerian government officials for natural gas contracts.
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February 22, 2012
Toxic Fly Ash Used In Golf Course Prompts $2B Suit
Hundreds of Virginia plaintiffs are taking a $2 billion swing at regional power company Dominion, which they accused in two lawsuits filed Tuesday of exposing them to toxic fly ash that was used as fill for a golf course built in the middle of their community.
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February 22, 2012
SEC Accuses Puda Coal Execs Of Looting Co.
U.S. securities regulators on Wednesday accused two Puda Coal Inc. executives of looting their company and swindling investors by telling them they were investing in a Chinese coal business when they were actually investing in an empty shell company.
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February 22, 2012
Mitsubishi Invests $280M In Southeast Asia Energy Deal
Mitsubishi Corp. has reached a $280 million joint venture agreement with Canadian company Talisman Energy Inc. to develop nine natural gas projects in Papua New Guinea, Talisman said Wednesday.
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February 22, 2012
Centrica To Pay $388M For Total's Oil, Gas Assets
Centrica PLC, parent company of British Gas, has agreed to acquire French oil company Total SA's oil and gas assets in the central North Sea for £246 million ($388 million) as part of its strategy to increase oil reserves and cash flow, Centrica announced Wednesday.
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February 22, 2012
Power Co. Triumphs In High Court Ruling On Navigable Waters
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled PPL Montana LLC doesn't have to pay some $49 million to Montana for operating hydroelectric plants on its riverbeds, unanimously rejecting a state court's ruling that rivers with waterfalls and other "interruptions" were navigable.
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February 22, 2012
2nd Massey Boss Charged In Fatal Mine Explosion
Federal prosecutors charged a second Massey Energy Co. mine boss Wednesday with obstructing an investigation into poor safety conditions at the infamous Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia, where an explosion in 2010 killed 29 miners.
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February 21, 2012
NY Court Upholds Fracking Ban In Town's Row With Anschutz
A New York state judge on Tuesday upheld the town of Dryden's ban on hydrofracturing, rejecting natural gas company Anschutz Exploration Corp.'s contention that the ban is preempted by state laws that prevent regulation of the oil and gas industry on a local level.
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February 21, 2012
Wells Fargo To Buy BNP Paribas Energy Loan Unit
Wells Fargo Bank NA has agreed to buy BNP Paribas SA's reserve-based energy lending business, which has about $9.5 billion in loan commitments and $3.9 billion in outstanding loans, the banks said Tuesday.
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February 21, 2012
Catalyst Nabs Minority Stake In Offshore Oil Contractor
Australian private equity firm Catalyst Investment Managers Pty Ltd. has purchased a roughly 40 percent stake in Bhagwan Marine Pty Ltd., providing the offshore oil and gas service provider with capital to expand its operations, the private equity firm said Tuesday.
Expert Analysis
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A Jolt Of Power For FERC In EPA Reliability Issues
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is seeking comments on proposed procedures for advising the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency with respect to electric generator reliability issues — even though FERC itself has no statutory authority over generation adequacy and no experience modeling potential impacts from plant shutdowns, says Brian Gish of David Wright Tremaine LLP.
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The Irredeemable Relevance Of SEC Enforcement Action
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has issued a cease-and-desist order against Fifth Third Bancorp that, despite unusual circumstances, is relevant to any company that plans to redeem any of its publicly held securities, such as utility or other energy companies that commonly have redeemable debt securities or preferred stock outstanding, say attorneys with Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP.
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'Buy American' And Solar Devices — DOD Clarification
The U.S. Department of Defense's interim rule implementing the "Buy American" requirement for photovoltaic devices being purchased by the DOD should provide greater clarity for contractors regarding the types of products that will satisfy the new requirement, as well as how the requirement will be implemented, say attorneys with Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP.
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Flying In A New Direction: Migratory Bird Treaty Act
A North Dakota federal court has dismissed misdemeanor criminal charges against three oil and gas companies for violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in a significant opinion that represents the latest in a number of cases that have reinterpreted the act in a manner that does not criminalize the inadvertent "taking" of migratory birds, say Per Ramfjord and Stephen Galloway of Stoel Rives LLP.
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Law School, Meet Litigation PR ...
The single most important thing law schools can do to manage their reputations in the face of litigation is apply the lessons learned from Wall Street during the recent financial crisis and strive for transparency in all communications. One need only look to Goldman Sachs’ woes or the struggles of Jon Corzine’s MF Global as examples of the catastrophic results of a campaign based on anything but complete honesty, says Spencer Baretz of Hellerman Baretz Communications.
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2012 Regulatory Watch List: Commodity ETF Industry
Due in large part to the Dodd-Frank Act and increased scrutiny by regulators of the financial and commodities markets, 2012 promises to bring a host of new regulatory requirements and issues for the commodity exchange-traded-funds industry, say attorneys with Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP.
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Shale Of The Century
Shale gas has revolutionized the U.S. energy market and now looks set to do the same for China. But potentially entrenched opposition from an alliance of environmentalists, Big Coal, Big Nuclear and sidelined gas-producing nations means the road to fracking nirvana is likely to be bumpy, says Jeremy Sheldon of Stephenson Harwood.
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High-Growth Markets: An Attractive M&A Option
Although high-growth market merger and acquisition activity in 2011 failed to sustain the spectacular growth it experienced in 2010, the looming threat of a double-dip recession in developed economies could push managers to swiftly seize high-quality M&A opportunities in high-growth markets in the near term, say attorneys with Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP.
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Bulking Up NERC's Reliability Authority
In response to a directive from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation has submitted for approval a revised definition of a bulk electric system. Expanding the scope of facilities that fall under the definition will automatically expand the scope of NERC’s reliability standards, say Nicholas Giannasca, Carlos Gutierrez and Elizabeth Stern of Blank Rome LLP.
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Exploring Coverage For Fracking-Related Losses
Despite how groundless allegations of fracking-related harm may prove, plaintiffs’ lawyers around the country are already lining up for what they consider to be the next wave of tort litigation. Companies engaged in fracking operations are well advised to carefully review all potentially applicable insurance policies to protect their business enterprise, says Jared Zola of Dickstein Shapiro LLP.