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Environmental
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May 10, 2013
Fla. High Court Won't Hear Green Groups' Sanctions Appeal
The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday declined to take up an appeal by environmental groups who were sanctioned by a lower court for their “meritless appeal” of a decision approving changes to Martin County's growth-management plan.
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May 10, 2013
Oil Co. Sees Claims Trimmed In $15M Katrina Coverage Row
Oil field operator Cox Operating LLC on Friday lost its bad faith claim against an insurer from whom it has been seeking up to $15 million for damage caused by Hurricane Katrina.
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May 10, 2013
GAO Rips EPA Over Pollution Cleanup Oversight Failures
The U.S. Government Accountability Office chided the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday for failing to keep close tabs on nearly 2,000 polluted sites identified as eligible for the national priorities list, finding that the agency is not properly tracking and documenting the cleanup process.
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May 10, 2013
Tata Power Buys 40% Stake In $700M Eurasian Hydro Project
Tata Power Co. Ltd. has inked an agreement with Norway's Clean Energy Invest AS and the World Bank's investment arm, the International Finance Corp., to develop a $700 million hydroelectric project in the nation of Georgia to provide power to Turkey, the Indian integrated power giant said Friday.
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May 10, 2013
Undersea Oil Exploration Blasts In Gulf Draw Federal Scrutiny
The U.S. Department of the Interior is launching a full-scale environmental investigation examining the impact of underwater blasts set off in the Gulf of Mexico to detect energy resources beneath the sea floor, the agency said Friday.
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May 10, 2013
Stoel Rives Lands Natural Resources Pro From Birch Horton
Stoel Rives LLP gave a recent boost to its environment, land use and natural resources group by hiring away a partner from Birch Horton Bittner & Cherot PC with 18 years of expertise in oil, gas and mining issues to work in its Anchorage, Alaska, office, the firm said Thursday.
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May 10, 2013
Markey Says BP's Federal Contract Ban Should Stay In Place
A leading House Democrat said Friday that BP PLC hasn't turned over information detailing how it misled Congress about the amount of oil released during the Deepwater Horizon disaster and urged regulators to keep the company's federal contracts ban in place until it adequately responds.
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May 10, 2013
Senate Moves Ahead With Water Infrastructure Bill
Bipartisan legislation authorizing several major U.S. Army Corps of Engineers water projects moved a step closer to approval on Thursday, with the Senate adopting a handful of amendments and one of the bill's sponsors pledging to present a final version for vote in a matter of days.
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May 10, 2013
San Francisco Defeats Enviro Challenge To Redevelopment
A California appeals court on Thursday blasted two environmental groups' lawsuit claiming San Francisco's environmental review of a 22-parcel redevelopment flouted state laws, finding the city's assessment of the project was more than adequate and refusing to block it from moving forward.
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May 10, 2013
Sierra Club Appeals Emission Plan For Pa. Coal Plant
A new emission-control plan imposed on a Pennsylvania coal-fired power plant owned — which environmentalists say ranks among the nation’s dirtiest — fails to ensure the facility will meet federal air pollution limits, the Sierra Club claimed in an appeal before state regulators on Thursday.
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May 10, 2013
Q&A With Hunton & Williams' Brooks Smith
Our keystone environmental laws have been catalysts for real and lasting environmental progress, but many of those laws focus on “yesterday’s problems” and are not well-suited to address our more contemporary challenges, says Brooks Smith, partner and co-chairman of Hunton & Williams' environmental practice.
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May 9, 2013
Synagro's Top Creditor Offers To Fund Longer Ch. 11 Sale
Synagro Technologies Inc.'s largest creditor on Thursday claimed the bankrupt recycling company's proposed bid procedures will force the company into a fire sale, but the private equity firm declared it is so confident a longer marketing period will maximize value that it will fund the process itself.
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May 9, 2013
Fla. Court Revives Enviros' Petition Over Marsh Dumping Plan
A Florida appeals court on Thursday rebuffed a state environmental agency for throwing out the petition of two environmental groups seeking to prevent a marsh from being filled with millions of pounds of sand, saying improper materials were considered in tossing a request for administrative review.
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May 9, 2013
China Says It Won't Shy From Solar Panel Trade War With EU
China's Ministry of Commerce said Thursday that it would protect its domestic solar panel industry in light of the European Union's recently announced intention to impose duties on solar panels imported from the country, saying the dispute should be resolved through consultations.
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May 9, 2013
TransCanada Rebuts EPA's Keystone Concerns
TransCanada Corp. on Wednesday challenged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's criticism of a report favorable to its Keystone XL pipeline, saying the environmental regulator hadn’t identified any new problems with the pipeline and that its recommendations are ill-advised.
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May 9, 2013
Pa. Regulators Say DEP Must Justify Emission Fee Hike
The Pennsylvania Independent Regulatory Review Commission on Wednesday ordered a unit of the state Department of Environmental Protection to clarify how it balanced competing interests of improving air quality and minimizing the economic impact on industry in its proposal to raise emission fees.
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May 9, 2013
Baker Botts Adds Trio of Partners To Offices In NY, DC
Baker Botts LLP has lured a trio of experienced partners to its Washington and New York offices, significantly boosting its transactions and securities practices and its expertise in energy matters, the firm announced this week.
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May 9, 2013
MidAmerican Helms $1.9B Iowa Wind Power Expansion
Warren Buffett’s MidAmerican Energy Inc. on Wednesday pledged $1.9 billion for wind projects in Iowa that will add more than 1,000 megawatts of power to the state’s alternative energy mix in what will be a landmark investment in Iowa’s economic development.
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May 9, 2013
US Offshore Regulators Will Beef Up Joint Oversight
The U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement and the U.S. Coast Guard said Thursday that they would strengthen their shared oversight of the offshore oil industry by developing joint policies in the areas their authorities overlap, including joint inspections and evaluations of offshore operations.
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May 9, 2013
Q&A With Greenberg Traurig's David Weinstein
I am a proponent of courts using their inherent authority to implement effective case-management tools to address complexities and reduce the potential for abuse in mass tort litigation, says David Weinstein, managing shareholder with Greenberg Traurig LLP.
Expert Analysis
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We Need More Diversity In Mediation
In our increasingly interconnected global marketplace, U.S. corporations could well profit from engaging alternative dispute resolution practitioners who are familiar with these diverse cultures. But problems in the development and retention of minority neutrals exist, even as the U.S. population grows more and more diverse, says Ariel Belen, a panelist with JAMS and former associate justice of the New York Supreme Court.
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Colo. Picks A Side In Pollution Exclusion Split
Pursuant to the Colorado Supreme Court's decision in Mountain States Mutual Casualty Co. v. Christopher Roinestad, insurance coverage may be excluded under absolute pollution exclusion clauses for both nontraditional and traditional pollution under Colorado law. The states' highest courts are about evenly split in this regard, and this case substantially broadens the exclusion's application, say attorneys with Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP.
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E-Discovery Trends: Looking Back To Move Forward
E-discovery decisions throughout 2012 and early 2013 have shed some light on the issues, but they have also raised new questions and conflicting standards regarding how courts address litigation holds, cooperation with opposing counsel, and new technologies, say attorneys with Paul Hastings LLP.
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A Tale Of 2 Cities: Beijing And DC On Climate Change
In the U.S., it seems that the Obama administration will press forward with regulatory action on climate change. Similarly, China's response to climate change-related pollution continues to push ahead. Both countries' efforts signal that climate change will likely be strengthened, but real difficulties for business and investors remain, say attorneys with Fulbright & Jaworski LLP and Norton Rose LLP.
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Ralls Case Shows Importance Of Proactively Engaging CFIUS
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia recently dismissed most claims of Chinese-owned Ralls Corporation’s civil action against an executive order that prohibits Ralls’ acquisition of four wind farm project companies in Oregon. The case exemplifies the importance of notifying and engaging the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States voluntarily before closing a transaction that may raise national security concerns, says Alexandra Lopez-Casero of Nixon Peabody LLP.
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New CEQA Bill — Cure Or Band-Aid?
In response to a business community campaign calling for broad California Environmental Quality Act reform, Sen. Darrell Steinberg, D-Calif., released his highly anticipated CEQA "modernization" bill. So far, the bill is more remarkable for what it lacks than for what it contains, but it still could reduce CEQA delay and uncertainty, says Barbara Schussman of Perkins Coie LLP.
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9th Circ. Clears The Air For Mine Owners
In the recent case, Center for Biological Diversity v. Salazar, the Ninth Circuit ruled that mining plans of operations do not expire after temporary closures. This decision marks notable, favorable precedent for the mining industry and project proponents and helps settle expectations for mining plans of operations, says Tyler Welti of Perkins Coie LLP.
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Duration Of Damages: Can Lost Profits Continue Forever?
If a business is financially harmed, but not ruined, by the acts of another party, it may seek damages based on some measure of lost profit. But for how long? An expert offering an opinion that financial harm will continue well into the future should consider the potential hesitancy of a judge or jury to award uncertain, long-term future damages, say Rodney Bosco and David Ottenbreit of Navigant Consulting Inc.
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Will AIA Power Clean Technology?
The creation of cost-effective, efficient means to challenge the validity of a patent will certainly become one of the long-lasting impacts of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act. For clean technology companies, the proceedings offer a way to navigate the tidal wave of industry patents issued under fast-paced examination programs, say attorneys with Robins Kaplan Miller & Ciresi LLP.
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Calif.'s Road To Fracking Regulation Will Be Bumpy
For the foreseeable future in California, fracking regulation will continue to move forward on three parallel paths: through the courts, legislature and agencies. Unfortunately, however, none of these paths are likely to provide the industry with clear rules regarding fracking activities in the next year, say attorneys with Bingham McCutchen LLP.