EnergyRSS

  • November 21, 2008

    9th Circ. Nixes Shell's Arctic Drilling Plan

    The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has vacated Shell Offshore Inc.'s drilling plan in Alaska's Beaufort Sea, citing the government's failure to analyze its environmental impact.

  • November 20, 2008

    EEOC Bias Filing Counts As A 'Charge': 10th Circ.

    The questionnaires that a plaintiff submitted to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging disability bias on the part of an oil-field services company qualify as a "charge" initiated within the statute of limitations, an appeals court has ruled.

  • November 20, 2008

    9th Circ. Says CERCLA Preempts Statutes Of Repose

    An appeals court has ruled that the federal environmental compensation and liability law's power to override a statute of limitations also applies to the slightly distinct statute of repose, reviving a negligence claim against Sun Oil Co. and diverging from a decision in another circuit court.

  • November 21, 2008

    Berkshire Gas To Pay $3.8M For Superfund Cleanup

    Natural gas provider Berkshire Gas Co. has agreed to pay $3.8 million to cover the cleanup of residual oil and sludge from its operations in the Housatonic River, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday.

  • November 19, 2008

    9th Circ. Tosses School's Suit Over GE Plant

    An appeals court has affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit against a General Electric Co. subsidiary aiming to block the construction of a new power plant 1,100 feet from a school in California.

  • November 18, 2008

    Waco Oil and Gas Quarry Permit Crushed

    West Virginia's high court has upheld the West Virginia Surface Mine Board's denial of Waco Oil and Gas Co. Inc.'s bid for a quarry mine permit, reversing a lower court's order that vacated the board's 2003 decision.

  • November 17, 2008

    Former Enserco Trader Settles CFTC Suit

    A federal court has ordered former Enserco Energy Inc. gas trader Matthew Reed to pay a $475,000 civil penalty for allegedly reporting false natural gas price and volume information to a trade publication in order to manipulate natural gas prices.

  • November 17, 2008

    Mining Co. Settles Wrongful Death Suit With Widows

    Massey Energy Co. reportedly has settled a wrongful death suit with the widows of two miners who died in a 2006 fire in one of the company's West Virginia coal mines.

  • November 12, 2008

    Suit Over Duke Energy Tax Credits Tossed

    A district court judge has dismissed a lawsuit by environmental advocacy groups that challenged federal tax credits the U.S. Department of Energy agreed to give Duke Energy Corp. for its planned cleaner coal plant.

  • November 12, 2008

    Fed. Circ. Vacates $40M Judgment For Boston Edison

    A federal appeals court has vacated a $40 million judgment in favor of Boston Edison Co. in a dispute with the U.S. government over spent nuclear fuel after finding the case was too intertwined with another case for the matter to have been only partially decided.

  • November 11, 2008

    E.ON Part Of Electricity 'Oligopoly': German Court

    A German court has ruled that utility company E.ON AG can't acquire municipal electric company Stadtwerke Eschwege because of competition concerns, upholding a decision by Germany's cartel office.

  • November 10, 2008

    Dallas' Appeal Rejected In Gas Rate-Setting Case

    A Texas state appeals court has rejected the city of Dallas' challenge to a lower court order that upheld the Railroad Commission of Texas' decision to set natural gas rates on a statewide rather than region-by-region basis.

  • November 10, 2008

    Court Rules FirstEnergy Units Can't Raise Rates

    A Pennsylvania court has ruled that two subsidiaries of FirstEnergy Corp. can't bump up customers' retail electric rates to reflect the skyrocketing price of wholesale electricity, shooting down the utilities' bid to sidestep rate caps they agreed to in the 1990s.

  • November 10, 2008

    Plains All American Settles State Claims Over Oil Spill

    Plains All American Pipeline LP has handed over some $1.1 million in civil settlement payments to various California state agencies in connection with a crude oil spill that has also sparked a lawsuit by federal authorities.

  • November 4, 2008

    Ex-Gas Trader Gets Prison Time For Faking Deals

    A former El Paso Corp. natural gas trader will serve 10 months in prison for lying about transactions in an industry newsletter in order to manipulate markets, the U.S. attorney's office said Monday.

  • November 5, 2008

    Allegheny Power Loses Appeal Over Rate Increases

    A Virginia Supreme Court has upheld a decision scaling back rate increases Allegheny Power was allowed to make in 2007 to recoup money it spent to obtain electricity from the competitive wholesale market.

  • October 31, 2008

    NYC Cabbies Stall Mayor's Gas-Efficiency Mandate

    The Bloomberg administration's mandate for hybrid taxicabs in New York City hit a roadblock Friday, after a federal judge granted the taxicab industry's request for a preliminary injunction on the city's new fuel-economy regulations.

  • October 30, 2008

    Business Method Patents Down But Not Out: Experts

    After months of speculation over the fate of business method patents, a federal appeals court has rejected a patent application covering a method for hedging risks in commodities trading for not meeting patent eligibility requirements. Is the Bilski decision the end for business method patents? Far from it, lawyers say.

  • October 30, 2008

    Sempra Wins $48.5M Over Bad Investment Advice

    Sempra Energy has won $48.5 million against an insurance adviser that recommended a political risk policy that failed to protect the firm from millions of dollars in foreign investment losses when Argentina’s banks defaulted in 2001.

  • October 30, 2008

    Massive Superfund Deal Calls For $29M Cleanup

    The U.S. government and the state of Connecticut have struck three settlement deals related to a Superfund site, one of which calls for more than 50 potentially responsible parties, including Shell Chemicals LP, BASF Corp. and Kraft Foods Global Inc., to do about $29 million in cleanup work at the site, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.