Environmental

  • April 04, 2024

    Steel Talks Absent From Start Of US-EU Trade Ministerial

    Conversations on the first day of the EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council on Thursday focused on sustainability for both the planet and the transatlantic partnership, but noticeably skirted the pair's foundered effort to reshape the global steel market.

  • April 04, 2024

    NTIA Knocks Out Enviro Hurdles For Broadband Permitting

    The list of things that broadband deployment projects will have to conduct in-depth environmental assessments for is getting shorter after the National Telecommunications and Information Administration created 30 new "categorical exclusions" in the hopes of cutting red tape.

  • April 04, 2024

    Judge Recuses Herself From Cartel Case Over Exxon Stock

    A Nevada federal judge has recused herself from a batch of antitrust lawsuits claiming U.S. shale oil producers colluded with OPEC to drive up prices at the pump, citing her ownership of a "significant" amount of Exxon Mobil Corp. stock.

  • April 04, 2024

    EPA Names Nonprofits To Get $20B From New GHG Fund

    At least $20 billion is heading out of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's door to eight nonprofits that will disburse the money for "green" projects such as distributed energy, net-zero buildings, and zero-emissions transportation projects.

  • April 04, 2024

    W.Va. Plaintiff Drops Telemarketing Claim Against Fla. Firm

    A West Virginia woman who alleged in a putative class action that law firms had bombarded her and others with unwanted legal advertising phone calls has announced a joint dismissal with one of the firms involved.

  • April 04, 2024

    SEC Voluntarily Puts Climate Regs On Ice During Court Battle

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Thursday that it is voluntarily delaying the implementation of climate disclosure regulations while it fights an Eighth Circuit challenge seeking to vacate the rules, with the regulator saying that it hopes the voluntary stay will speed resolution of the case. 

  • April 04, 2024

    Squire Patton Adds Polsinelli Enviro Atty Pair In Denver

    Squire Patton Boggs LLP announced Thursday that it had added two former Polsinelli PC attorneys to its global environmental, safety and health practice.

  • April 04, 2024

    Great Lakes Fishing Pact Tramples Treaty Rights, Tribe Says

    The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians is asking the Sixth Circuit to undo a Great Lakes fishing decree between it and four other tribes and the state of Michigan, arguing the decree was entered without its consent and imposes upon its treaty rights.

  • April 04, 2024

    Project Owners Eager To Sell Energy Tax Credits, Report Says

    Project owners are pursuing new financing strategies that would support the early sale of their clean energy tax credits as more projects in their initial development stage this year seek to capitalize on the incentives as early as possible, a report released Thursday said.

  • April 03, 2024

    Hawaii Bio Power Co. Can't Add Merger-Based Antitrust Claims

    A Hawaii federal magistrate judge has refused to permit the addition of new allegations, based on a 2017 fossil fuel plant acquisition, to a recently restarted lawsuit accusing the state's largest power company of anticompetitively canceling a contract for a new biomass energy plant.

  • April 03, 2024

    Roadless Rule Doesn't Suit The Tongass, Alaska, Allies Argue

    The state of Alaska, electric utilities, and a coalition of towns, mining and business groups, as well as a former Last Frontier governor, are all urging a federal judge to overturn the Biden administration's decision to reinstate roadless area protections for millions of acres of the Tongass National Forest.

  • April 03, 2024

    EU Probing Solar Project Under Foreign Subsidy Rules

    European enforcers launched a pair of investigations Wednesday to assess whether companies bidding on a solar project in Romania received an unfair advantage through foreign subsidies.

  • April 03, 2024

    NJ Judge Grants Initial OK Of $2.7M EV Maker Investor Deal

    A New Jersey federal judge granted preliminary approval to a $2.7 million deal between investors and executives of an electric vehicle company after it went bankrupt, after finding his prior hesitations concerning the deal's notice plan had been resolved.

  • April 03, 2024

    Industry Groups Ask DC Circ. To Toss EPA Smog Plan

    Industry groups have urged the D.C. Circuit to strike down the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's plan to reduce smog-forming emissions in several states, saying the federal agency cannot forge ahead with a diminished version of the regulations.

  • April 03, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Struggles With Ambiguity In $14M Army Corps Row

    Federal Circuit judges struggled Wednesday to understand ambiguous terms in a company's contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for post-hurricane power restoration, indicating that neither party had clearly explained if the contractor has a valid $14 million claim for additional work needed.

  • April 03, 2024

    ITC To Pay $6.6M To DOJ, Texas Over 2019 Chemical Fire

    The owner of a chemical storage facility has agreed to pay more than $6.6 million in connection with natural resource damage stemming from a 2019 fire that burned for six days at a plant southeast of Houston, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday.

  • April 03, 2024

    Enviro Group Sues DOE Over $1.1B Diablo Canyon Award

    Environmental group Friends of the Earth slapped the U.S. Department of Energy with a complaint in California federal court seeking to unravel the agency's $1.1 billion award for the continued operation of the state's last remaining nuclear power plant.

  • April 03, 2024

    EPA Faces Down Water Rule Challenge In Texas

    The federal government has asked a Texas federal judge to toss lawsuits filed by Texas, Idaho and more than a dozen industry groups challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers' rule defining the extent of the Clean Water Act's reach.

  • April 03, 2024

    5th Circ. Unsure Miners Can Escape Pecan Farm Flood Verdict

    Fifth Circuit judges on Wednesday suggested that the owner of an open gravel mine on the bank of the Colorado River could have a tough time in its bid to avoid responsibility for devastating flooding at a pecan farm across the river.

  • April 03, 2024

    Gov't Says Alaska Gold Mine Approvals Should Stand

    The U.S. government is defending its approvals for a large open-pit gold mine along the Kuskokwim River in southwest Alaska, telling a federal judge a half dozen tribes challenging them fail to show that agencies did not take the required "hard look" at project impacts.

  • April 03, 2024

    Beekeeper Groups Seek Fees From EPA After 9th Circ. Appeal

    Attorneys for beekeeper groups in an appeal over a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency decision on insecticides have asked the Ninth Circuit to award nearly $750,000 in legal fees after a ruling that hammered the EPA but left the agency's decision intact.

  • April 03, 2024

    Forchelli Appoints Environmental Practice Chair

    Forchelli Deegan Terrana LLP has announced the hiring of a partner with experience in organizations such as Miller Environmental Group Inc. and New York American Water to chair its environmental practice group.

  • April 03, 2024

    Top 10 Deals Of Q1 Led By GE Energy Spinoff, Capital One

    It may be wishful thinking to imagine that earlier hopes for a major rebound in 2024 mergers and acquisitions activity will pan out, but by many indications the year was at least off to a better start than 2023.

  • April 03, 2024

    Oil Company Says Judge's Recusal Not Needed In Cartel Suits

    Pioneer Natural Resources Co. fired back at gasoline buyers' attempt to recuse a Nevada federal judge from the parties' antitrust litigation over her stock ownership in ExxonMobil Corp., arguing that the company isn't a party to the case, and that the litigation should be transferred to Texas.

  • April 02, 2024

    Utility Cos. Must Face Uri MDL Gross Negligence Claims

    Transmission and distribution utility providers can't escape allegations they were grossly negligent in cutting off power to Texans during winter storm Uri, a Texas state appeals court ruled Tuesday in an opinion that keeps intact only two claims against the companies in the multidistrict litigation created to handle consumer actions from the severe weather event.

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    A Telecom Attorney's Defense Of The Chevron Doctrine

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    The Chevron doctrine, which requires judicial deference to federal regulators, is under attack in two U.S. Supreme Court cases — and while most telecom attorneys likely agree that the Federal Communications Commission is guilty of overrelying on it, the problem is not the doctrine itself, says Carl Northrop at Telecommunications Law Professionals.

  • SEC Whistleblower Action Spotlights Risks For Private Cos.

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent whistleblower action against Monolith Resources holds important implications for private companies, who could face unprecedented regulatory scrutiny amid the agency's efforts to beef up environmental, social and governance reporting and enforcement, say attorneys at Wiley.

  • Attorneys Have An Ethical Duty To Protect The Judiciary

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    The tenor of public disagreement and debate has become increasingly hostile against judges, and though the legislative branch is trying to ameliorate this safety gap, lawyers have a moral imperative and professional requirement to stand with judges in defusing attacks against them and their rulings, says Deborah Winokur at Cozen O'Connor.

  • What NJ's Green Remediation Guidance Means For Cleanups

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    Recent guidance from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection promoting greener approaches to restoring contaminated sites demonstrates the state's commitment to sustainability and environmental justice — but could also entail more complexity, higher costs and longer remediation timelines, say J. Michael Showalter and Bradley Rochlen at ArentFox Schiff.

  • Mo. Solar Projects Need Clarity On Enterprise Zone Tax Relief

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    In Missouri, enhanced enterprise zones offer tax abatements that could offset the cost of solar project infrastructure, but developers must be willing to navigate uncertainty about whether the project is classified as real property, say Lizzy McEntire and Anna Kimbrell at Husch Blackwell.

  • AI Can Help Lawyers Overcome The Programming Barrier

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    Legal professionals without programming expertise can use generative artificial intelligence to harness the power of automation and other technology solutions to streamline their work, without the steep learning curve traditionally associated with coding, says George Zalepa at Greenberg Traurig.

  • What To Expect After Colo. Nixes Special Standing Rules

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    Two recent Colorado Supreme Court decisions have abandoned a test to preclude standing in lawsuits challenging government decisions brought by subordinate government entities, which will likely lead to an admixture of results, including opening the door to additional legal challenges between government entities, says John Crisham at Crisham & Holman.

  • Preparing Law Students For A New, AI-Assisted Legal World

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    As artificial intelligence rapidly transforms the legal landscape, law schools must integrate technology and curricula that address AI’s innate challenges — from ethics to data security — to help students stay ahead of the curve, say Daniel Garrie at Law & Forensics, Ryan Abbott at JAMS and Karen Silverman at Cantellus Group.

  • Series

    ESG Around The World: South Korea

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    Numerous ESG trends have materialized in South Korea in the past three years, with impacts ranging from greenwashing prevention and carbon neutrality measures to workplace harassment and board diversity initiatives, say Chang Wook Min and Hyun Chan Jung at Jipyong.

  • How Social Media Can Affect Trial Outcomes

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    With social media’s ability to seize upon an issue and spin it into a specifically designed narrative, it is more critical than ever that a litigation communications strategy be part of trial planning to manage the impact of legal action on a company's reputation, say Sean Murphy and Steve Wood at Courtroom Sciences.

  • General Counsel Need Data Literacy To Keep Up With AI

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    With the rise of accessible and powerful generative artificial intelligence solutions, it is imperative for general counsel to understand the use and application of data for myriad important activities, from evaluating the e-discovery process to monitoring compliance analytics and more, says Colin Levy at Malbek.

  • Illinois Trump Tower Ruling Illuminates Insurance 'Occurrence'

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    In Continental Casualty v. 401 North Wabash Venture, an Illinois appellate court found that Trump Tower was not entitled to insurance coverage for operating its HVAC system without a permit, helping to further define a widely litigated general liability insurance issue — what constitutes an "occurrence," say Robert Tugander and Greg Mann at Rivkin Radler.

  • A Look At Successful Bid Protests In FY 2023

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    Attorneys at Sheppard Mullin look beyond the statistics in the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s recent annual report on bid protests, sharing their insights about nine categories of sustained protests, gained from reading every fiscal year 2023 decision in which the protester had a positive result.

  • Navigating Discovery Of Generative AI Information

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    As generative artificial intelligence tools become increasingly ubiquitous, companies must make sure to preserve generative AI data when there is reasonable expectation of litigation, and to include transcripts in litigation hold notices, as they may be relevant to discovery requests, say Nick Peterson and Corey Hauser at Wiley.

  • Finding Focus: Strategies For Attorneys With ADHD

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    Given the prevalence of ADHD among attorneys, it is imperative that the legal community gain a better understanding of how ADHD affects well-being, and that resources and strategies exist for attorneys with this disability to manage their symptoms and achieve success, say Casey Dixon at Dixon Life Coaching and Krista Larson at Stinson.

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