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Energy
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May 22, 2024
EPA Urges Justices To Keep Ozone Fight In DC Circ.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday urged the Supreme Court to keep seven consolidated challenges to the EPA's decision disapproving Utah's and Oklahoma's air quality plans in the D.C. Circuit.
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May 22, 2024
Oil Tanker Operators To Pay $2M For Dumping Oil From Ship
The operators of the motor tanker PS Dream pled guilty in Louisiana federal court as part of a $2 million plea deal with the U.S. Department of Justice that includes four years of probation, after a whistleblower shared a video of oil being deliberately pumped overboard in January 2023.
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May 21, 2024
BNSF Judge Said Trespass Payout Will Be Distance-Based
BNSF Railway Co. will have to give up profits from at least part of its 1,500-mile oil shipment route to compensate a Washington tribe for nearly a decade of train trespassings across a less-than-mile-long easement, a federal judge ruled Monday.
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May 21, 2024
Quarry Not Liable For Dirt Bike Accident, NJ Panel Says
The owner of a New Jersey quarry long used by all-terrain vehicle enthusiasts cannot be held liable for injuries a dirt biker sustained after he struck a steel cable on the property, a state appeals court has ruled, saying the landowner installed the cable for legitimate, not malicious, purposes.
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May 21, 2024
Banks Urged To Vote Out Exxon Leaders Who Sued Investors
A group of state and city financial officials sent letters to some of the biggest banks and asset managers Tuesday urging them to vote against Exxon Mobil Corp.'s CEO and lead independent director at an upcoming annual meeting because of the company's lawsuit against a pair of environmentally minded activist investors.
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May 21, 2024
PetroSaudi Says $380M Award Feud Close To Resolution
A PetroSaudi unit and the Biden administration are nearing a settlement to resolve a bitter dispute over the proceeds of a nearly $380 million arbitral award allegedly tied to embezzled 1Malaysia Development Berhad funds, which the government has been looking to seize for years, the parties said Monday.
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May 21, 2024
Nixing Green Energy Tax Perks Would Be Tough For Trump
Former President Donald Trump has vowed to scrap Democrats' signature 2022 climate law should he get reelected in November, but following through on that campaign promise could prove difficult amid bipartisan support for many of the law's clean energy tax incentives and a potentially divided Congress.
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May 21, 2024
NYC Pension Funds Call For 'No' Vote On Musk's Tesla Pay
Five New York City pension funds have joined with seven other Tesla Inc. institutional investors in calls for stockholders to vote down CEO Elon Musk's once-$56 billion compensation plan and vote out two board allies, branding the pay excessive and the two directors too close to Musk.
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May 21, 2024
20 States Challenge Biden Admin's NEPA Rule
A group of 20 states sued the Biden administration's Council on Environmental Quality on Tuesday in North Dakota federal court, challenging a recent environmental permitting rule they claim unlawfully changes the National Environmental Policy Act's review procedures "into a substantive set of requirements to achieve broad and vague policy goals."
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May 21, 2024
TotalEnergies Hit With Climate Criminal Complaint In France
Three environmental groups, alongside eight victims of climate change, filed a criminal complaint on Tuesday in Paris against French petroleum company TotalEnergies' board of directors and main shareholders for their alleged contribution to climate change and its impact on humans and the environment.
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May 21, 2024
BASF Agrees To $316.5M Settlement In PFAS Foam MDL
Attorneys representing public water systems in a South Carolina multidistrict litigation over so-called forever chemicals in drinking water announced Tuesday that they've reached an agreement in principle with defendant BASF Corp., which will pay $316.5 million to resolve the claims.
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May 21, 2024
Valero Brings $37M Refund Claim Over Fuel Credit, Crude Tax
Energy company Valero is seeking $37 million in tax refunds for biomass fuel mixtures it said should've qualified for the alternative fuel tax credit and for claimed overpayments of crude tax, according to a complaint in Texas federal court.
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May 21, 2024
US Steel And Cleveland-Cliffs Spar Over Merits Of Nippon Deal
U.S. Steel sought to "correct the record" regarding its planned $14.9 billion sale to Nippon Steel on Tuesday, highlighting its continued faith in the deal while blasting what it called a "misinformation campaign" from rival Cleveland-Cliffs.
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May 21, 2024
Strategic Hiring Was The New Normal For BigLaw In 2023
The 400 largest law firms by headcount in the U.S. grew more slowly in 2023 than in the previous two years, while Kirkland & Ellis LLP surpassed the 3,000-attorney threshold, according to the latest Law360 ranking.
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May 21, 2024
The Law360 400: Tracking The Largest US Law Firms
The legal market expanded more tentatively in 2023 than in previous years amid a slowdown in demand for legal services, especially in transactions, an area that has been sluggish but is expected to quicken in the near future.
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May 21, 2024
Contractor For Exxon, QatarEnergy LNG Venture Hits Ch. 11
The general contractor for a liquefied natural gas project co-owned by Exxon Mobil Corp. and QatarEnergy filed for Chapter 11 protection in Texas bankruptcy court Tuesday with more than $1 billion of debt, saying it intends to use the court process to back out of the Texas venture.
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May 21, 2024
Texas Oil Co. Sues To Challenge Colo. Regulators' $23M Fine
A Texas oil and gas company accused Colorado regulators of failing to properly serve violation notices and imposing an "excessive" $23.2 million fine contrary to the rights set forth in the state and U.S. constitutions, in a complaint filed in Colorado state court.
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May 20, 2024
Biofuel Groups Urge High Court To Undo 5th Circ. Ruling
Two biofuel trade associations called on the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to review a Fifth Circuit decision vacating the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's denial of small refiners' requests for exemptions from their renewable-fuel program obligations, highlighting a split with five other circuit courts.
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May 20, 2024
Mich. Town Can't Block $2B Battery Plant, Judge Rules
A Michigan federal judge has ordered that Green Charter Township can't prevent Gotion Inc.'s upcoming battery components plant, in which the company plans on investing more than $2 billion, from moving forward.
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May 20, 2024
Conn. Retools Bid To Deny Utility Board Member's Pension
The state of Connecticut on Monday agreed to retool two paragraphs of a complaint seeking to revoke the pension of a Norwich city employee convicted of misusing funds while serving on a public utility board, a move that a state trial court judge hoped would more swiftly adjudicate the dispute.
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May 20, 2024
Oil & Gas Groups Press DC Circ. To Block EPA Methane Rule
Oil and gas industry groups have urged the D.C. Circuit to block the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's expanded methane emissions control requirements while they're being challenged in court, saying the agency failed to reckon with the requirements' outsized impacts on owners of low-producing oil and gas wells.
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May 20, 2024
Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court
Delaware was full of drama last week, as proposed changes to the state's corporate law statutes raised eyebrows and a professor's friend-of-the-court brief sparked a very unfriendly public exchange. Delaware's court of equity banged the gavel on pipeline and social media disputes, and shareholders filed new suits alleging insider trading, vote bungling, unfair stock buybacks and merger shenanigans. In case you missed any of it, here's the recap of all the top news last week from Delaware's Chancery Court.
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May 20, 2024
Fried Frank, K&L Gates Lead $950M Sale Of Transportation Biz
Transportation and distribution services provider Saltchuk Resources Inc., advised by K&L Gates LLP, on Monday announced plans to acquire energy transportation services provider Overseas Shipholding Group Inc., led by Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP, in a take-private transaction valued at $950 million.
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May 20, 2024
Justices Stay Out Of Pipeline Land Fight With FERC
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to review the D.C. Circuit decision dismissing a suit challenging the constitutionality of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's eminent domain authority brought by Virginia landowners along the route of the Mountain Valley pipeline.
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May 17, 2024
Utah, Farm Groups Ask To Reopen Bears Ears Monument Suit
The state of Utah and two farming associations have asked a D.C. federal court to lift a more than three-year stay in a tribal case over the Bears Ears National Monument, saying the case is now moot and another monument case is pending before the Tenth Circuit.
Expert Analysis
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3 Administrative Law Lessons From 5th Circ. Appliance Ruling
Showing that mundane details can be outcome-determinative, the Fifth Circuit's recent decision in Louisiana v. U.S. Department of Energy — that the government's repeal of rules affecting dishwashers and laundry machines is invalid — highlights the relationship between regulatory actions and statutory language, say Michael Showalter and Vyasa Babu at ArentFox Schiff.
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Aviation Back On Course, But Keep Seat Belts Fastened
While the airline industry finally returned to profitability last year for the first time since the onset of COVID-19, and is poised for historic levels of traffic in 2024, supply chain problems and economic and geopolitical uncertainty persist — so more turbulence may lie ahead, say Kevin Lewis and Bart Biggers at Sidley.
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Employer Trial Tips For Fighting Worker PPE Pay Claims
Courts have struggled for decades to reach consensus on whether employees must be paid for time spent donning and doffing personal protective equipment, but this convoluted legal history points to practical trial strategies to help employers defeat these Fair Labor Standards Act claims, say Michael Mueller and Evangeline Paschal at Hunton.
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Reimagining Law Firm Culture To Break The Cycle Of Burnout
While attorney burnout remains a perennial issue in the legal profession, shifting post-pandemic expectations mean that law firms must adapt their office cultures to retain talent, say Kevin Henderson and Eric Pacifici at SMB Law Group.
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Series
ESG Around The World: Brazil
Environmental, social and governance issues have increasingly translated into new legislation in Brazil since 2020, and in the wake of these recently enacted regulations, we are likely to see a growing number of legal disputes in the largest South American country related to ESG issues such as greenwashing if companies are not prepared to adequately adapt and comply, say attorneys at Mattos Filho.
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Vagueness In Calif. Climate Law Makes Compliance Tricky
California's recently enacted Voluntary Carbon Market Disclosures Act requires companies making claims of carbon neutrality, or significant greenhouse gas emissions reductions, to disclose information supporting those claims — but vague and conflicting language in the statute poses multiple problems for businesses, say John Rousakis and Chris Bowman at O'Melveny.
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Series
Competing In Dressage Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My lifelong participation in the sport of dressage — often called ballet on horses — has proven that several skills developed through training and competition are transferable to legal work, especially the ability to harness focus, persistence and versatility when negotiating a deal, says Stephanie Coco at V&E.
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Harmonizing Agricultural And Clean Energy Goals
Congress' extension of the Farm Bill offers a chance to more thoroughly consider innovation and investments that could transform the competition between farmers and solar developers into synergistic agrivoltaic systems, which use land for both agriculture and solar energy generation, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.
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CFTC Moves May Boost Interest In Voluntary Carbon Markets
As companies try to reduce their net greenhouse gas emissions, many have been cautious about embracing voluntary carbon credit markets — but recent moves by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to regulate this sector may address some of its well-known challenges, say Deborah North and Laura Daugherty at Cleary.
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3 Strategies For Aggressive Judgment Enforcement
As illustrated by the many creditors of Citgo Petroleum Corp. who may walk away empty-handed — despite the company's court-ordered sale — it is important to start investigating counterparty assets and planning for enforcement even before obtaining a judgment, says Brian Asher at Asher Research.
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Musk Pay Package Ruling Offers Detailed Lesson On Del. Law
Anat Alon-Beck and John Livingstone at Case Western Reserve University discuss the specifics that led Delaware's chancellor to rescind Elon Musk's $55.8 billion Tesla pay package on Jan. 30, how the state’s entire fairness doctrine played into the ruling, and its bigger-picture impact on the executive compensation landscape.
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Key Maritime Law Issues In 2024: Election-Year Unknowns
In the final installment of this three-part article reviewing the top challenges for the maritime industry this year, Sean Pribyl at Holland & Knight examines how the uncertainty surrounding the forthcoming U.S. election may affect the maritime sector — especially companies involved in offshore wind and deep-sea mining.
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The Legal Industry Needs A Cybersecurity Paradigm Shift
As law firms face ever-increasing risks of cyberattacks and ransomware incidents, the legal industry must implement robust cybersecurity measures and privacy-centric practices to preserve attorney-client privilege, safeguard client trust and uphold the profession’s integrity, says Ryan Paterson at Unplugged.
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Key Maritime Law Issues In 2024: Environmental Challenges
In the second installment of this three-part article examining key concerns for the maritime sector this year, Sean Pribyl at Holland & Knight considers how the industry will be affected by environmental concerns — including the growing push for decarbonization, and regulatory scrutiny around greenwashing and ESG issues.
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5 Reasons Associates Shouldn't Take A Job Just For Money
As a number of BigLaw firms increase salary scales for early-career attorneys, law students and lateral associates considering new job offers should weigh several key factors that may matter more than financial compensation, say Albert Tawil at Lateral Hub and Ruvin Levavi at Power Forward.