Energy

  • March 08, 2024

    SEC's Climate Regs Face Multipronged Courtroom Attack

    The future of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's long-awaited corporate climate disclosure regulations is up in the air as the agency stares down lawsuits challenging its authority to promulgate the rules, with even more parties threatening to force the agency to defend its decision in court for years.

  • March 08, 2024

    Gerdau Steel Denied Fathers Parental Leave, Ex-Workers Say

    Male steel mill workers for Gerdau were not allowed to take parental leave when their children were born unlike their female co-workers who were granted maternity leave, in violation of federal equal pay law, according to a proposed collective action filed in Texas federal court.

  • March 08, 2024

    Allegiance Coal Spars With Ch. 11 Lender Over $1.8M Fees

    A Delaware bankruptcy judge on Friday declined to rule on a petition from mining company Allegiance Coal USA to toss its debtor-in-possession lender's adversary proceeding demanding $1.8 million in fees, allowing more time to determine whether the fees have priority over the rest of the debtor's obligations.

  • March 08, 2024

    Calif. County Hasn't Fixed Oil Permitting Rules, Court Says

    A California appeals court again nixed a Kern County, California, ordinance that paves the way for faster oil and gas development in the area, saying the court-ordered, revised policy still doesn't comply with the state's bedrock environmental law.

  • March 08, 2024

    Texas Challenges EPA Methane Rule 'Overreach'

    Texas on Friday sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over sweeping methane emissions control requirements for oil and gas infrastructure that include the first-ever requirements for existing sources.

  • March 08, 2024

    Mich. Justices Punt On Time Limits For Ballot Petition Drives

    The Michigan Supreme Court on Friday rejected an appeal from fracking opponents whose proposed ban didn't make the ballot because many gathered signatures were too old, though one justice said the court should have ruled on whether those time limits pass muster.

  • March 08, 2024

    UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

    This past week in London has seen Barclays initiate legal proceedings against top Russian private bank JSC Alfa-Bank; Lex Greensill, founder of the collapsed Greensill Capital, suing the U.K.'s Department for Business and Trade; Wikipedia's parent company hit with a libel claim; and a sports journalism teacher filing a data protection claim against Manchester United FC. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

  • March 08, 2024

    Direct Pay Regs Would Lift Major Barrier For Energy Projects

    A U.S. Treasury Department proposal to give partnerships access to direct payments of tax credits for green energy projects would lift a significant barrier that has prevented tribes, municipalities, schools and nonprofits from capitalizing on joint ownership arrangements. 

  • March 07, 2024

    Chemours Internal Review Reveals Violations By Top Execs

    Chemical giant Chemours announced on Wednesday that an internal investigation revealed that three executives engaged in unethical financial practices to boost their incentive compensation.

  • March 07, 2024

    Tesla Can Force Individual Arbitration In EV Mileage Fight

    A California federal judge on Thursday ruled that Tesla can force individual arbitration in two proposed class actions alleging the carmaker falsely advertised inflated mileage ranges for its electric vehicles, but stayed the suit in case an arbitrator determines that certain relief is barred under Tesla's arbitration agreement.

  • March 07, 2024

    Petition Watch: Student Athletes, Oil Spills & Preemption

    The U.S. Supreme Court receives thousands of petitions for review each term, but only a few make the news. Here, Law360 looks at four petitions filed in the past three weeks that you might've missed: questions over whether student athletes have a business interest in being eligible to play college sports, how much oil is needed to qualify as an oil spill, whether an exemption to the Fourth Amendment applies to artificial intelligence and whether consumers can sue drug companies under state law for violating federal regulations.

  • March 07, 2024

    Judges Say Facing Threats And Vitriol Now Part Of The Job

    Federal judges spoke Thursday about the challenges of the profession in the 21st century, describing how they've either received threats or know of warnings against colleagues, with one jurist saying she received 11 death threats during her first three months on the bench.

  • March 07, 2024

    Xcel Energy Says It May Be To Blame For Texas Wildfire

    Xcel Energy Inc. said Thursday that its facilities may have been involved in igniting one of the massive wildfires ravaging the Texas Panhandle, though it said it disputes the notion that it was negligent in maintaining and operating its infrastructure.

  • March 07, 2024

    Tesla's $6M Solar Roof Deal OK'd After Objector Backs Down

    A California federal judge on Thursday approved Tesla's $6.08 million class action settlement and class counsel's $1.5 million fee request resolving allegations Tesla deceptively raised prices of its solar roof tile system after a class member dropped her sole objection mid-hearing upon learning she'll receive $17,000 under the settlement.

  • March 07, 2024

    Southern Peaks Awarded $42.5M Over Peruvian Copper Deal

    Peruvian copper producer Southern Peaks Mining LP said it has won a multi-million-dollar arbitral award favoring its management subsidiary due to breaches of a sale and purchase agreement with Singaporean commodity trading company Trafigura Beheer BV over the acquisition of a mine.

  • March 07, 2024

    DC Circ. Mulls Groundwater In Coal Ash Closure Fight

    A D.C. Circuit panel on Thursday seemed wary of an energy industry coalition's claim that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency illegally strengthened regulations to clean up coal ash waste impoundments by stretching regulatory definitions to cover facilities in contact with groundwater.

  • March 07, 2024

    Wells Fargo, Goldman Escape Some Climate Proxy Proposals

    The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. may exclude from their upcoming proxy statements shareholder proposals calling for reports on their clients' climate change commitments, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange staff, which also wouldn't let Wells Fargo or Texas Instruments Inc. escape including separate labor and human rights-related proposals.

  • March 07, 2024

    Energy Cos. Still Have Work To Do In Final SEC Climate Rule

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's scaled-back climate change disclosure rule unquestionably lightens the compliance load for energy companies, but they still have plenty of work to satisfy the agency's requirements, attorneys say.

  • March 07, 2024

    Green Groups Try To Protect Wildlife Refuge From Power Line

    Three environmental groups have accused the federal government of unlawfully allowing private developers to run a massive high-voltage transmission line through the protected Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge, in violation of the 1997 National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act. 

  • March 07, 2024

    Anadarko Keeps Win In Colo. Oil Biz Lease Fight

    A Colorado appellate panel on Thursday rejected an oil and gas production company's claims that an Anadarko Petroleum subsidiary wrongfully terminated nearly two dozen leases, with the judges finding the agreements could be terminated upon written notice "for any reason or for no reason at all."

  • March 07, 2024

    Calif. Bar Pursues Atty Discipline Over LADWP Billing Scandal

    The California State Bar announced Thursday it has filed seven disciplinary charges against a San Fernando Valley attorney accused of scheming with lawyers representing the city of Los Angeles to settle a customer billing class action favorably for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, a public utility.

  • March 07, 2024

    CenturyLink Cut From Suit Blaming Utilities For Road Delays

    The city of Sammamish, Washington, has quietly dropped CenturyLink from a state court lawsuit accusing it, Comcast and other companies of causing millions of dollars in roadwork delays by failing to move their infrastructure in a timely manner.

  • March 07, 2024

    Indian Gov't Eyes Linking Carbon Tax On Coal To Quality

    The Indian government should consider linking its carbon tax on coal to quality and price rather than weight because the current system gives an advantage to imported coal over domestic coal, the country's Ministry of Coal said Thursday.

  • March 07, 2024

    FTC Slams 'Unprecedented' 7-Eleven Defense In Agency Suit

    The Federal Trade Commission is calling 7-Eleven's theory that only the U.S. Department of Justice can seek civil penalties for violating commission orders "unprecedented," asking a D.C. federal judge to deny the company's motion to dismiss the commission's suit for allegedly violating a 2018 consent order.

  • March 07, 2024

    FERC Wrong To Give Iowa Grid Project Perk, DC Circ. Told

    A coalition of four industrial and commercial energy consumers has told the D.C. Circuit that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission wrongly gave out an abandonment incentive for an Iowa transmission project currently hanging in the balance following a March 2023 Iowa Supreme Court ruling.

Expert Analysis

  • In The World Of Legal Ethics, 10 Trends To Note From 2023

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    Lucian Pera at Adams and Reese and Trisha Rich at Holland & Knight identify the top legal ethics trends from 2023 — including issues related to hot documents, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity — that lawyers should be aware of to put their best foot forward.

  • Analyzing 1 Year Of Comments On FTC's Green Guides

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    A review of over 7,000 comments submitted in the year since the Federal Trade Commission requested feedback on its Green Guides reveals widespread concern over how the existing guidelines leave room for interpretation, putting businesses in a challenging position when marketing products, say Mark Levy and Emma Lombard at Eckert Seamans.

  • Opinion

    Animal Rights Are About Saving Nature, And Our Own Future

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    The climate crisis makes it clear that animal law — conceived of as an ecocentric approach to protecting the most vulnerable nonhumans who depend on the natural environment — is essential to restoring the Earth and safeguarding the future of humanity, says Carter Dillard at the Fair Start Movement.

  • How Attorneys Can Be More Efficient This Holiday Season

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    Attorneys should consider a few key tips to speed up their work during the holidays so they can join the festivities — from streamlining the document review process to creating similar folder structures, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

  • Top 10 Whistleblowing And Retaliation Events Of 2023

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and federal and state courts made 2023 another groundbreaking year for whistleblower litigation and retaliation developments, including the SEC’s massive whistleblower awards, which are likely to continue into 2024 and further incentivize individuals to submit tips, say attorneys at Proskauer.

  • Clean Water Act Jurisdiction Still Murky After A Choppy 2023

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    This year brought several important Clean Water Act jurisdictional developments, including multiple agency rules and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that substantially altered the definition of "waters of the United States," but a new wave of litigation challenges has already begun, with no clear end in sight, say attorneys at Nossaman.

  • Series

    Children's Book Writing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Becoming a children's book author has opened doors to incredible new experiences of which I barely dared to dream, but the process has also changed my life by serving as a reminder that strong writing, networking and public speaking skills are hugely beneficial to a legal career, says Shaunna Bailey at Sheppard Mullin.

  • Parsing 2023's Energy Markets Enforcement

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    A review of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's and Commodity Futures Trading Commission's recently released fiscal year 2023 enforcement reports highlight the significant energy market enforcement activities, litigation pursued and settlements reached by both agencies, as well as their respective strategic goals and focus areas, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • A Review Of 2023's Most Notable Securities Litigation

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    There is much to be learned from the most prominent private securities cases of 2023, specifically the Tesla trial, the U.S. Supreme Court's Slack decision and the resolution of Goldman Sachs litigation, but one lesson running through all of them is that there can be rewards at the end of the line for defendants willing to go the distance, say attorneys at Fried Frank.

  • 'Brownfields' Definition Key To Energy Community Tax Credits

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    As the IRS rolls out guidance for claiming community energy tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act, a review of the long-standing statutory definition of "brownfields" reveals that it continues to serve the goal of creating opportunities for investment in abandoned properties, says Louise Dyble at Sheppard Mullin.

  • ESG Investing Caught In Culture War Crosshairs In 2023

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    As 2023 draws to a close, ESG investing remains a raging battleground in the U.S. culture wars, as illustrated by the array of legislative efforts across the country aimed variously at restricting or promoting the use of ESG investing — but it remains to be seen what practical impact, if any, these laws will have, say Amy Roy and Robert Skinner at Ropes & Gray.

  • Inside CFTC's Latest Push To Regulate Carbon Markets

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    The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's newly proposed guidance for voluntary carbon credit derivative contracts is among several recent moves it has taken to address climate-related financial risk, and although the guidance is less robust than it could be, it should foster discussion toward a regulatory framework for this market, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • How Clients May Use AI To Monitor Attorneys

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    Artificial intelligence tools will increasingly enable clients to monitor and evaluate their counsel’s activities, so attorneys must clearly define the terms of engagement and likewise take advantage of the efficiencies offered by AI, says Ronald Levine at Herrick Feinstein.

  • 7 Enforcement Predictions For US Export Controls, Sanctions

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    Federal agencies' assertions of coming increases in export-control and sanctions-violations enforcement are not new, but recent improvements in resources and inter-agency cooperation allow for certain predictions about how the administration’s latest approach to enforcement may be applied going forward, say attorneys at Akin.

  • Energy Sector Takeaways From Biden's AI Executive Order

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    While the U.S. Department of Energy begins to establish rules in accordance with President Joe Biden's recent executive order on artificial intelligence, in-house counsel can work with business lines and executive teams to consider implementing their own AI governance process, say Joel Meister and James De Vellis at Foley & Lardner.

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