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Environmental
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March 22, 2024
Colo. Water District Illegally Doubled Tax Rate, Panel Says
A water conservancy district violated the Colorado Constitution when it doubled its property tax rate without voter approval, a state appeals court ruled, reversing a lower court's decision against a proposed class of property owners.
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March 22, 2024
DLA Piper Welcomes Energy Attorney To Philly Office
A transactional attorney specializing in advising clients on renewable energy and sustainability projects has moved her practice from Allen & Overy LLP to DLA Piper's Philadelphia office.
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March 21, 2024
FERC Upholds, Clarifies Grid Connection Policy Rewrite
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission affirmed and clarified revised policies finalized last summer that govern how new power projects connect to transmission lines during its monthly meeting Thursday, coinciding with a U.S. Senate committee hearing on President Joe Biden's recent FERC nominations.
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March 21, 2024
6th Circ. Skeptical Of Enbridge's Late Pipeline Suit Transfer
A Sixth Circuit panel questioned how Enbridge Energy LP could move a lawsuit seeking to shut down one of its pipelines to federal court more than two years after it was filed, pressing the company Thursday to justify missing the 30-day cutoff for removals.
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March 21, 2024
DC Circ. Mulls Reach Of EPA's Boiler Emission Limits
A D.C. Circuit panel on Thursday questioned the backward reach of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's updated emissions standards for industrial boilers while appearing amenable to federal regulators' choice of data used to calculate the pollution limits.
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March 21, 2024
Feds Defend Congressional Authority To Reduce HFCs
The EPA is urging the D.C. Circuit to reject coolant industry challenges to a gradual reduction of climate-damaging hydrofluorocarbons, arguing it had a congressional mandate to establish the phase-out and correctly excluded recent years' chemical imports from future quota calculations.
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March 21, 2024
Alaska Fails To Remove ESA Protections For Ringed Seals
An Alaska federal judge on Wednesday rejected the state's effort to eliminate Endangered Species Act protections for Arctic ringed seals.
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March 21, 2024
Cos. Push For Held-Up Power Line Through Wildlife Refuge
Power companies and the U.S. government are asking a Wisconsin federal judge to reject conservation groups' bid to block a land swap allowing the Cardinal-Hickory Creek transmission line to cross the Upper Mississippi National Wildlife and Fish Refuge, with the judge putting any execution of the deal temporarily on hold in advance of a Friday hearing.
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March 21, 2024
Exxon Wants Mass. Oil Purchase Docs In Greenwashing Suit
The Massachusetts attorney general's office told a judge Thursday that Exxon Mobil Corp. is attempting to relitigate already-barred defenses in an alleged "greenwashing" case by seeking documents from at least a dozen state agencies, including ones concerning decisions by those agencies to purchase the energy company's products.
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March 21, 2024
DOL Urges 5th Circ. To Back Biden Admin. ESG Investing Rule
The U.S. Department of Labor urged the Fifth Circuit on Thursday to uphold a rule allowing retirement advisers to consider social issues such as climate change when choosing investments, arguing that conservative states challenging the rule haven't shown it defies federal benefits law.
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March 21, 2024
FERC Nominees Carefully Walk Climate Line In Senate Hearing
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission nominees on Thursday told a U.S. Senate panel that the agency isn't a climate change regulator, but they didn't close the door on FERC ever considering climate impacts in its decision making either.
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March 21, 2024
Feds, Green Groups Say Campbell's Is Polluting Lake Erie
The United States and two environmental groups brought separate complaints on the same day accusing a Campbell's subsidiary of violating the Clean Water Act by polluting Lake Erie and the Maumee River with wastewater from its northwestern Ohio canning facility.
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March 21, 2024
8th Circ. Wins SEC Climate Rule Litigation Lottery
The wave of cases against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recently finalized climate disclosure rules will be consolidated and proceed in the Eighth Circuit, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation ordered Thursday, after the agency requested a random draw.
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March 20, 2024
Justices Ask How Texas, NM Can Cut Water Deal Without Feds
U.S. Supreme Court justices on Wednesday questioned whether Texas, New Mexico and Colorado can settle their dispute over Rio Grande water rights without the approval of the federal government — which is arguing the deal could leave the water systems in those states high and dry.
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March 20, 2024
Gas Buyers Want Judge Recused From Shale Cartel Suits
A would-be class of gasoline buyers pursuing antitrust claims against a string of shale oil producers told a Nevada federal judge on Tuesday that her admitted ownership of stock in Exxon Mobil Corp. required her to recuse herself from presiding over the litigation.
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March 20, 2024
SEC Proxy Roundup: Verizon, UPS Escape ESG Proposals
Verizon and UPS may exclude from their proxy statements shareholder proposals on social policy and climate change matters, according to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission staff, who also denied various other requests from corporations looking to escape separate social and politics-related proposals.
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March 20, 2024
EU Insurers Warn Regulators Of Gaps In Greenwashing Rules
European insurers have urged the bloc's insurance and pensions watchdog to be consistent and clear with its greenwashing rules for investment products, pointing to discrepancies between jurisdictions and inconsistencies with other sustainability frameworks.
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March 20, 2024
How The Supreme Court Could Narrow Chevron
After hours of oral argument in a closely watched administrative law case, it appeared that some U.S. Supreme Court justices could be open to limiting the opportunities for lower courts to defer to federal agencies' legal interpretations in disputes over rulemaking — and legal experts said there are a number of ways they could do it.
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March 20, 2024
EPA Tightens Auto Emissions Rules But Relaxes Timetable
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday finalized a rule that requires reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from cars, trucks and vans through 2032, although automakers, labor unions and dealers convinced the EPA to relax its timetable.
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March 20, 2024
Breaking Down Each State's Climate Priority Policies
Forty-five states have now completed climate action plans outlining how they'll advance federal climate goals through policy and programs in coming years, with most focusing at least in part on real estate development as a way to reduce emissions.
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March 20, 2024
Feds Didn't Consider LNG Rule's Impact On Tribe, Court Told
The Puyallup Tribe of Indians has fired back at the U.S. Department of Transportation's defense of a rule permitting bulk rail transport of liquefied natural gas, telling the D.C. Circuit the agency failed to engage in meaningful dialogue during the rule's development.
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March 20, 2024
Law360 Announces The Members Of Its 2024 Editorial Boards
Law360 is pleased to announce the formation of its 2024 Editorial Advisory Boards.
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March 20, 2024
US Chamber's Litigation Funding Concerns Spur 2 State Laws
Amid concerns from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce about third-party litigation funding, including from potentially hostile foreign entities, state legislatures in Indiana and West Virginia have recently passed bills imposing restrictions on the practice.
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March 20, 2024
DA Says Greenhouse Suit Interferes With Code Enforcement
The San Bernardino County district attorney is asking a California federal judge to throw out a suit from a Native American-owned company aiming to block the DA from abating and removing equipment from greenhouses that was used in an illegal cannabis operation involving a prior owner.
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March 19, 2024
Feds, NY Residents Spar Over Congestion Pricing Battle
Federal and New York transportation agencies have told a Manhattan federal judge that local residents waited too late to file lawsuits trying to block congestion pricing, but the plaintiffs countered that the agencies have admitted that they'll have to reevaluate the environmental harms the new tolls would have on communities.
Expert Analysis
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ESG Accountability: From Reactive To Proactive
As more standards bodies and regulators develop and release their rules for sustainability and climate disclosures, organizations have an opportunity to establish leadership and unlock opportunities by making proactive commitments to tracking and reporting on environmental, social and governance issues, says Anthony Campanelli at Deloitte.
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How Law Firms Can Use Account-Based Marketing Strategies
Amid several evolving legal industry trends, account-based marketing can help law firms uncover additional revenue-generating opportunities with existing clients, with key considerations ranging from data analytics to relationship building, say Jennifer Ramsey at stage LLC and consultant Gina Sponzilli.
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Opinion
Science On Human Health Effects Of PFAS Is Still Inconsistent
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances have soared to the top of environmental regulatory agendas, and dominated environmental news headlines — but scientific research into causal relationships between PFAS exposure and adverse human health effects is still unclear and inconsistent, say Jeffrey Dintzer and Samantha Van Winter at Alston & Bird.
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Leveraging Municipal Bonds For Green Energy Finance
The U.S.'s transition to renewable energy will require collaboration between public and private capital sources — and that means that lawyers used to working in corporate finance must understand how the municipal bond market functions differently, due to its grounding in the U.S. Constitution, says Ann Fillingham at Dykema.
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Mitigating Costs And Delays In The Energy Transition
Achieving net-zero will require constructing a massive amount of new wind, solar and energy storage infrastructure — and while cost overruns and delays are to be expected, contractors and owners can proactively address these problems in their project documents, say Christopher Ryan and Jesse Sherrett at Shearman.
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AGs' Distaste For Food Bill May Signal Other State Issues
States' recent opposition to a proposed federal law that would block them from regulating out-of-state agricultural production could affect issues beyond this narrow debate, such as the balance of state and federal regulatory power, reproductive rights post-Dobbs, and energy production and water use, say Christopher Allen and Stephen Cobb at Cozen O'Connor.
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Strategic Succession Planning At Law Firms Is Crucial
Senior partners' reluctance to retire, the rise of the nonequity partner tier and generational differences in expectations are all contributing to an increasing number of departures from BigLaw, making it imperative for firms to encourage retirement among senior ranks and provide clearer leadership pathways to junior attorneys, says Laura Leopard at Leopard Solutions.
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Why All Cos. Should Take Note Of Calif. GHG Disclosure Laws
Two recent California laws involving the disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions, as well as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's upcoming final rule, focus on financial services firms' so-called financed emissions, meaning vastly more companies than those directly subject to today's reporting mandates will be required to supply climate-related risk disclosures, says David Smith at Manatt.
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Calif. Climate Disclosure Bills Promise Challenges For Cos.
Two novel climate disclosure bills recently passed by the California Legislature will pose challenges for many businesses — especially private companies that are less familiar with climate-related reporting obligations — and will require investments of significant time and effort in processes, procedures and personnel, say John Rousakis and Chris Bowman at O'Melveny.
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Maximizing Law Firm Profitability In Uncertain Times
As threats of an economic downturn loom, firms can boost profits by embracing the power of bottom-line management and creating an ecosystem where strategic financial oversight and robust timekeeping practices meet evolved client relations, says Shireen Hilal at Maior Strategic Consulting.
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Audit Regulator Review Has Tips On Climate Metric Reporting
The U.K. Financial Reporting Council’s recent review of climate-related metrics and targets in listed companies’ annual reports is an extremely useful guide for issuers considering the quality of their disclosure reporting, with a number of key areas identified as central to further improvement, say lawyers at Bryan Cave.
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5th Circ. Ruling Reminds Attys That CBP Can Search Devices
The Fifth Circuit’s recent Malik v. Department of Homeland Security decision adds to the chorus of federal courts holding that border agents don’t need a warrant to search travelers’ electronic devices, so attorneys should consider certain special precautions to secure privileged information when reentering the U.S., says Jennifer Freel at Jackson Walker.
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Pesticide Labeling Bill, 9th Circ. Case Could Cut Prop 65 Suits
Both a pending bill in the U.S. House of Representatives and a case currently on appeal before the Ninth Circuit could constrain California's ability to require Proposition 65 warnings on pesticide products — thus potentially preventing numerous lawsuits and bringing relief to businesses across the country, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.
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Series
ESG Around The World: European Union
As the EU makes ESG regulation a priority, companies — both those based in the EU and others just doing business there — need to keep abreast of myriad new legislation that has either already taken effect or will in the near future, as noncompliance could result in fines, damages and director liability, say attorneys at Steptoe & Johnson.
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The Likable Witness: 6 Personality Archetypes To Cultivate
During pretrial witness preparation sessions, a few key methods can help identify the likable personality type a witness intuitively expresses, which can then be amplified at trial to create an emotional connection with jurors, says Gillian Drake at On Trial Associates.