Energy

  • March 07, 2024

    5th Circ. Backs Chevron Win In White Ex-Worker's Bias Suit

    The Fifth Circuit declined to reinstate a white former employee's lawsuit accusing a Chevron Corp. subsidiary of firing him to advance its race equity goals, saying he failed to push back on the company's argument that he was fired for repeatedly using the N-word.

  • March 07, 2024

    Deals Rumor Mill: Reddit, Cisco, LeBron James-PGA Tour

    Reddit's IPO could fetch a $6.5 billion valuation, European antitrust regulators are likely to approve Cisco's $28 billion acquisition of cybersecurity firm Plunk, and LeBron James is among parties interested in investing up to $3 billion combined to support the PGA Tour. Here, Law360 breaks down these and other notable deal rumors from the past week.

  • March 07, 2024

    6th Circ. Sends Oilfield Workers' OT Suit Back To Lower Court

    It should be up to a jury to sort out whether oilfield technicians' duties led to their irregular hours, the Sixth Circuit said, reversing an Ohio federal court's ruling in favor of the technicians in a wage dispute centering on an overtime exemption that applies to workers with fluctuating hours.

  • March 07, 2024

    Oil Co. Worker Says He Was Fired For Reporting Threats

    A seven-year employee of National Oilwell Varco LP alleges that the company fired him after reporting that another worker made discriminatory comments toward him, including one instance in which he threatened him with a knife.

  • March 07, 2024

    Spain's Iberdrola Lobs $2.5B Bid For Rest Of Avangrid

    Spanish renewable energy company Iberdrola SA has proposed to take its portfolio company, sustainable energy company Avangrid, private by purchasing the remaining issued and outstanding shares it does not already own in a $2.48 billion deal, according to Thursday statements from the parties.

  • March 07, 2024

    Baker Botts Adds Stoel Rives Energy Finance Partner In DC

    Baker Botts LLP has added a partner from Stoel Rives LLP, who joins the firm in Washington, D.C., to continue his practice focused on advising private lenders and multilateral development banks in a range of energy-related transactional matters, the firm recently announced.

  • March 07, 2024

    EV Charging Co. Hits Ch. 11 With Plan For Lender Takeover

    Electric vehicle charging company Charge Enterprises Inc. filed for Chapter 11 protection Thursday in Delaware bankruptcy court with $48.7 million in debt, saying it plans to hand control of the company to lenders following a dispute with an investment adviser.

  • March 06, 2024

    Top Calif. Antitrust Atty Says Criminal Cases On The Horizon

    California is poised to start prosecuting criminal antitrust cases under a Golden State law that is "broader" than federal law, a senior assistant attorney general for the California Department of Justice said Wednesday at a San Francisco conference.

  • March 06, 2024

    Red State AGs Sue SEC Over 'Illegal' Climate Disclosure Regs

    The attorneys general of West Virginia and Georgia are heading a coalition of 10 Republican-led states in asking the Eleventh Circuit to review the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's adoption Wednesday of climate reporting standards requiring some of the nation's largest companies to publicly disclose their greenhouse gas emissions.

  • March 06, 2024

    Ex-Oil Exec. Michael Reger Dukes It Out With Dorsey Attys

    Michael Reger, a co-founder and former executive of now-defunct oil transloading company Dakota Plains Holdings Inc., is trading blows in Minnesota state court with his onetime legal counsel from Dorsey & Whitney LLP, with the firm saying Reger's malpractice complaint is just an attempt to skip his bill following a stock fraud suit.

  • March 06, 2024

    Norfolk Southern Can't Shift Cleanup Costs To Tank Car Cos.

    Norfolk Southern cannot dump environmental cleanup costs on seven tank car owners and shipping customers with rail cars transporting chemicals and hazardous materials on the train that derailed in East Palestine last year, an Ohio federal judge said Wednesday.

  • March 06, 2024

    Exxon Kicks Off Arbitration Over Guyana Offshore Oil Project

    ExxonMobil has initiated arbitration in order to retain its right of first refusal over Hess Corp.'s stake in a lucrative oil block off Guyana's Atlantic coast, an Exxon spokesperson confirmed on Wednesday.

  • March 06, 2024

    Enviro Groups Say Colo. Trail Will Increase Cancer Risks

    A D.C. federal judge strained to square two directly conflicting assertions in an ongoing challenge to a Fish and Wildlife Service trail in Colorado Wednesday, one from environmental and health groups claiming that plutonium from the site was certain to cause rare and deadly illnesses to trail-goers and nearby residents, and another from the federal government claiming that the trace levels of plutonium near a former-weapons plant were well below thresholds for concern.

  • March 06, 2024

    M&A Values Getting Boost Amid Election-Year Scramble

    The value of U.S. mergers and acquisitions as of Wednesday has doubled year over year, as economic concerns subside and deal-makers scramble to get deals done in an election year, but middle-market transaction activity isn't panning out as some had hoped. 

  • March 06, 2024

    50 Lawmakers Urge FTC To Probe Oil And Gas Consolidations

    A group of 50 lawmakers on Wednesday urged the Federal Trade Commission to investigate a recent string of mergers and acquisitions in the oil industry, saying this "longstanding consolidation trend" threatens to reduce choice and competition across the supply chain, suppress wages and make gas at the pump more expensive.

  • March 06, 2024

    NTSB Chief Says Boeing Isn't Sharing Info In Blowout Probe

    The National Transportation Safety Board's chief told a Senate panel Wednesday that The Boeing Co. still hasn't provided information about the door plug that blew off a 737 Max 9 jet two months ago, fueling troubling new questions as Boeing faces multiple probes into its safety culture and quality control.

  • March 06, 2024

    Judge Won't Revisit Contempt Order In Gold Mine Control Suit

    A Colorado federal judge refused Tuesday to reconsider or amend his 2022 contempt order sanctioning mineral exploration company DynaResource in a decade-old arbitration dispute over control of a Mexican gold mine, finding that DynaResource's arguments are untimely and "at best" tangentially related to the arbitration award.

  • March 06, 2024

    PacifiCorp Must Pay $42.4M To Oregon Fire Victims, Jury Says

    A Portland jury said Tuesday that electric power company PacifiCorp must pay $42.4 million to compensate another 10 victims of devastating Labor Day fires that burned in Oregon in 2020, with thousands more class members awaiting potential trials.

  • March 06, 2024

    Red States Challenge EPA's Particulate Matter Standards

    A coalition of 24 Republican-led states filed a petition before the D.C. Circuit on Wednesday urging the court to upend the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recently announced final rule tightening federal standards for fine particulate matter pollution.

  • March 06, 2024

    Feds Pledge $72M For Tribes To Close Electrification Gaps

    U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said the Biden administration is awarding $72 million in a first round of funding to help Native American tribes electrify more homes in their communities.

  • March 06, 2024

    3rd Circ. Bristles At Exxon Ignoring OSHA Whistleblower Order

    A Third Circuit panel on Wednesday seemed exasperated with ExxonMobil's refusal to reinstate two fired whistleblowers despite an Occupational Safety and Health Administration order to do so, repeatedly grilling the energy company's counsel to come up with a good reason for flouting the directive.

  • March 06, 2024

    Epic Tesla Fee Bid May Blaze Extraordinary Chancery Path

    An unprecedented $5 billion-plus stock-based fee award sought by class attorneys who recently short-circuited Tesla CEO Elon Musk's 12-step, $51 billion compensation package has set up an equally unprecedented test for Delaware Court of Chancery fee guidelines and a potential award one law expert described as "dynastic wealth."

  • March 06, 2024

    Power Co. Can't Escape Explosion Fraud Claim

    An infrastructure supply company can't toss a fraud claim brought by an industrial company's insurers in a suit seeking to recoup $18.7 million in damages for a manufacturing facility explosion, an Ohio federal court ruled, finding that the carriers can bring both a breach of contract claim and a fraud claim.

  • March 06, 2024

    DC Circ. Sticks By FERC In Nebraska Utility Charge Fight

    The D.C. Circuit stood by its early January decision backing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's rejection of a Lincoln, Nebraska, public utility's proposal to recover costs from customers located in the same area as its generation and transmission source.

  • March 06, 2024

    Divided SEC Adopts Scaled-Back Climate Reporting Regs

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday adopted climate reporting standards that will require some of the nation's largest companies to publicly disclose their greenhouse gas emissions, and it was met almost immediately with a lawsuit despite the final rule scrapping a controversial proposal to mandate so-called Scope 3 disclosures.

Expert Analysis

  • Lessons From This Year's Landmark Green Energy IP Clash

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    In this year's Siemens v. General Electric wind turbine patent dispute, a Massachusetts federal court offers a cautionary tale against willful infringement, and highlights the balance between innovation, law and ethics, as legal battles like this become more frequent in the renewable energy sector, say John Powell and Andrew Siuta at Sunstein.

  • New Texas Funds For Water And Power Projects: Key Points

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    Two amendments to the Texas Constitution recently approved by the state's voters, implementing public funds for water and energy projects, may incentivize private companies to participate in development of new water and power infrastructure in Texas — and could well serve as a model for similar partnerships elsewhere, say attorneys at O'Melveny.

  • Series

    ESG Around The World: Singapore

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    Singapore is keen to establish itself as a leading international financial center and a key player in the sustainable finance ecosystem, and key initiatives led by its government and other regulatory bodies have helped the Asian nation progress from its initially guarded attitude toward ESG investment and reporting, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Series

    The Pop Culture Docket: Judge D'Emic On Moby Grape

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    The 1968 Moby Grape song "Murder in My Heart for the Judge" tells the tale of a fictional defendant treated with scorn by the judge, illustrating how much the legal system has evolved in the past 50 years, largely due to problem-solving courts and the principles of procedural justice, says Kings County Supreme Court Administrative Judge Matthew D'Emic.

  • Series

    Performing Music Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The discipline of performing live music has directly and positively influenced my effectiveness as a litigator — serving as a reminder that practice, intuition and team building are all important elements of a successful law practice, says Jeff Wakolbinger at Bryan Cave.

  • Green Tech And IP From Obama Through Biden: What's Next?

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    J. Douglas Miller and Matthew Dills at Shumaker consider how positions on the environment have shifted along with the last three U.S. presidential administrations, how these shifts have affected investment in sustainable green technologies and intellectual property strategies, and how the future might look.

  • Property Owner Considerations Around Electric Vehicle Bans

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    In light of a property management company's recent ban on electric vehicles in Canada, it's worth considering how similar bans might fare in Florida and other U.S. states, and the legal ramifications that could potentially arise, say Gerardo Ortega and Gary Kaleita at Lowndes.

  • What US-Canada Critical Minerals Collab Means For Cos.

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    Recent announcements from U.S. and Canadian officials indicate closer collaboration between the two governments on procurement of critical minerals for electric vehicles and other advanced technology — and companies on both sides of the border may have access to new opportunities as a result, say John Lushetsky, Matthew Simpson and Paul Dickerson at Mintz Levin.

  • Breaking Down High Court's New Code Of Conduct

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    The U.S. Supreme Court recently adopted its first-ever code of conduct, and counsel will need to work closely with clients in navigating its provisions, from gift-giving to recusal bids, say Phillip Gordon and Mateo Forero at Holtzman Vogel.

  • High Court's Chevron Review May Be A Crypto Game-Changer

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    The outcome of the U.S. Supreme Court's review of the Chevron doctrine in its pending Loper v. Raimondo case will potentially usher in a paradigm shift in cryptocurrency regulation, challenging agency authority and raising hopes for a recalibrated approach that favors judicial interpretation, says Sylvia Favretto at Mysten Labs.

  • A Gov't Contractor's Guide To Davis-Bacon Prevailing Wages

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    In light of shifting federal infrastructure priorities and recent updates to U.S. Department of Labor regulations, employers should take the time to revisit the basics of prevailing wage requirements for federal contractors under the Davis-Bacon Act and similar laws, says Timothy Taylor at Holland & Knight.

  • IRA Monetization Energizes Clean Power Tax Credit Market

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    Recent large sales of clean energy production tax credits reflect an environment in which the Inflation Reduction Act's provisions for monetizing such credits via direct transfer — bypassing slow, costly tax equity transactions — offer opportunities for both developers and investors, says Andrew Eastman at Husch Blackwell.

  • Opinion

    Legal Profession Gender Parity Requires Equal Parental Leave

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    To truly foster equity in the legal profession and to promote attorney retention, workplaces need to better support all parents, regardless of gender — starting by offering equal and robust parental leave to both birthing and non-birthing parents, says Ali Spindler at Irwin Fritchie.

  • Business Takeaways From Biden's Global Labor Rights Memo

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    President Joe Biden's recent memorandum on protecting worker rights is one of the most expansive statements the administration has made regarding international labor rights policy, and reflects several points of which businesses should take note, including the government’s interest in working with the private sector on these issues and a notable focus on the transition to clean energy, say Tom Plotkin and Pegah Nabili at Covington.

  • Superfund Site Reopenings Carry Insured Risk, Opportunity

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    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's reported plans to reopen certain Superfund sites citing the presence of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances raise notable liability concerns, but may also present unique opportunities for policyholders under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, say attorneys at Haynes and Boone.

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