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Environmental
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June 04, 2024
Judiciary Panel Clears 1st MDL Rule, Eyes 'Mouthpiece' Amici
Top rulemaking gatekeepers for the federal judiciary Tuesday capped off seven years of strife in the defense and plaintiffs bars by backing a milestone measure aimed at optimizing multidistrict litigation, and then promptly greenlighted an entirely different war of words over new efforts to ferret out amicus briefs from "paid mouthpieces" masquerading as independent experts.
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June 04, 2024
Monsanto Tries To Flip $1B PCB Losses As Plaintiffs Press On
Monsanto is moving to capitalize on a Washington state appellate victory it claims casts doubt on more than $1.1 billion in PCB poisoning verdicts, while plaintiffs are staking out positions to defend — and even build on — their blockbuster wins.
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June 04, 2024
GOP Spending Bill Aims To Cut SEC Budget, Nix Climate Rule
The Republican-led House Appropriations Committee released a spending bill Tuesday that threatens to cut funding for financial service agencies and prevent the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from funding its controversial climate disclosure rules and bar Consumer Financial Protection Bureau spending on a contentious rule, as well.
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June 04, 2024
Monsanto Gets $2.25B Roundup Verdict Slashed To $404M
A Pennsylvania judge on Tuesday slashed a $2.25 billion verdict awarded to a cancer patient who claimed Monsanto's glyphosate-based weedkiller Roundup contributed to his lymphoma, reducing the jury's 10-figure damages award to $404 million after the Bayer AG subsidiary argued that the initial award was "unconstitutionally excessive."
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June 04, 2024
Bill Would Give Tribes Stronger Say In Forest Protection
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski has introduced legislation that would correct oversights and expand the language of the Tribal Forest Protection Act, arguing that the law has proved too restrictive for Indigenous communities and prevented Alaskan Native corporations from participating in its programs entirely.
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June 04, 2024
Wildfire Attys Descend On Colo. As Xcel Litigation Ramps Up
Hundreds of lawsuits seeking to hold Xcel Energy responsible for a devastating 2021 Colorado wildfire are just the latest battleground for a relatively small community of lawyers who have been involved in some of the biggest catastrophic fire suits in the western U.S.
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June 04, 2024
Red States Target EPA's Tribal Water Rights Rule
A group of red states has told a federal court that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has turned the Clean Water Act into what they derisively called the "Tribal Rights Act," through a rule that protects Native American rights to water resources.
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June 04, 2024
Biden Admin Looks To Take Down Ariz. Monument Lawsuits
The Biden administration is asking a federal district court to dismiss lawsuits by the Arizona Legislature and a rancher that look to undo the national monument designation of an Indigenous site in the Grand Canyon region, arguing the lawmakers lack standing to challenge the Antiquities Act as unconstitutional.
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June 04, 2024
Senate Energy Panel Advances Trio Of FERC Nominees
A U.S. Senate energy panel on Tuesday advanced a trio of nominees to fill vacant commissioner slots at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, with the panel's chairman hinting that new energy infrastructure permitting legislation is also on the horizon.
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June 04, 2024
Bracewell Adds Energy Pro From Dentons In DC
Even before becoming an attorney and government affairs professional specializing in the energy and environmental sectors, Andrew Shaw was interested in environmental issues.
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June 04, 2024
Research Co. Pays Record $35M Fine In Dog Abuse Case
A clinical research company has agreed to pay a record $35 million fine for violations of the Animal Welfare Act as part of a deal to resolve criminal charges stemming from the abuse of beagles that it bred for medical research.
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June 04, 2024
11th Circ. Affirms Nix Of IRS Easement Disclosure Guidance
The Eleventh Circuit affirmed Tuesday that an Internal Revenue Service notice imposing reporting requirements on potentially abusive conservation easements was invalid because the agency failed to solicit the public feedback required by administrative law.
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June 03, 2024
PacifiCorp To Pay $178M To 400 Oregonians Over Fires
PacifiCorp has agreed to pay $178 million to more than 400 Oregon residents affected by a cluster of wildfires that burned more than a million acres of land on Labor Day 2020 amid dangerously dry and windy weather conditions, the utility announced Monday.
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June 03, 2024
ChampionX Investor Sues Over $7.8B Deal Proxy
A shareholder of energy technology provider ChampionX Corp. has sued the company and its board of directors in an attempt to enjoin a proposed acquisition by another energy-focused technology company, SLB, alleging that ChampionX filed a deficient proxy statement.
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June 03, 2024
Green Groups Drop Their Challenge To SEC's Climate Rule
The Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club have voluntarily asked the Eighth Circuit to dismiss their challenges to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate disclosure rule, saying they are instead focusing their resources elsewhere.
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June 03, 2024
Fifth Third Bank Sued Over 'Hidden' Cost Of Solar Panel Loans
Fifth Third Bank faces a proposed class action alleging that its solar panel financing business violated the federal Truth in Lending Act by failing to disclose that it keeps a significant portion of the cost of certain solar panel system purchases while telling consumers it was lending to them at a low interest rate.
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June 03, 2024
Enviro Groups Ask 9th Circ. To Affirm Blocked Logging Plan
Several environmental groups have urged the Ninth Circuit to uphold a Montana federal judge's decision halting a large logging operation in the Kootenai National Forest over concerns about the project's effect on grizzly bears and old-growth trees.
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June 03, 2024
Vietnamese EV Co. Hit With Investor Suit Over SPAC Merger
Vietnamese electric car manufacturer VinFast Auto and several executives have been hit with a proposed class action alleging they exaggerated the strength of VinFast's business model and prospects following a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company last year.
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June 03, 2024
Exxon Fights Activist Investor's 'Toothless' Dismissal Bid
Exxon Mobil Corp. is not backing away from a Texas lawsuit accusing investment adviser Arjuna Capital of improperly meddling in its business affairs by backing a proposal to reduce the company's greenhouse gas emissions, calling promises not to resubmit similar proposals in the future "toothless" in the wake of activist shareholder pressure to change the company's climate policy.
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June 03, 2024
Mich. Asks 6th Circ. To Keep Airport PFAS Suit In State Court
Michigan's Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy and the state attorney general are asking the Sixth Circuit to keep the department's suit against Gerald R. Ford International Airport Authority over so-called forever chemicals in state court, saying the Airport Authority is not entitled to removal as a "federal officer."
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June 03, 2024
Feds Oppose Fla.'s Plea For Rushed CWA Appeal
The federal government on Monday told the D.C. Circuit it needs more time to decide whether it is going to appeal a lower court's decision to strip Florida of the power to administer a Clean Water Act permitting program.
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June 03, 2024
Eversource 'Shamelessly' Touts Dangerous Fuel, Suit Says
Eversource Energy promotes natural gas as a safe, clean energy source when it knows otherwise and engages in "greenwashing" that minimizes its impact on the environment, according to a proposed class action filed in state court on behalf of Massachusetts residents serviced by the utility.
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June 03, 2024
Denver Oil Refinery Air Permit Is Valid, EPA Tells 10th Circ.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defended its refusal to object to the renewal of a Denver oil refinery's air pollution permit, telling the Tenth Circuit that the Center for Biological Diversity failed to show the permit would allow the refinery to emit harmful amounts of nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide.
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June 03, 2024
PPG Blames Enviro Groups For Pa. Site Cleanup Delay
PPG Industries told a Pennsylvania federal judge Monday that the company shouldn't be fined for delaying its cleanup of an industrial waste site outside Pittsburgh because it was ready to start work in the 1990s but was slowed by infeasible demands from state regulators and environmental groups.
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June 03, 2024
FERC Tells Justices Not To Review Rule Passed By Deadlock
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Friday urged the U.S. Supreme Court not to disturb a Third Circuit decision upholding an electricity market rule change that took effect despite a commissioner deadlock, arguing the lower court got it right and that any market upheaval concerns are unfounded.
Expert Analysis
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To Make Your Legal Writing Clear, Emulate A Master Chef
To deliver clear and effective written advocacy, lawyers should follow the model of a fine dining chef — seasoning a foundation of pure facts with punchy descriptors, spicing it up with analogies, refining the recipe and trimming the fat — thus catering to a sophisticated audience of decision-makers, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
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EPA Heavy-Duty Vehicle GHG Rules Face Bumpy Road Ahead
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's new standards to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for owners and operators of heavy-duty vehicles are facing opposition from both states and the transportation industry, and their arguments will mirror two pending cases challenging the EPA's authority, says Grant Laizer at Adams and Reese.
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Circuit Judge Writes An Opinion, AI Helps: What Now?
Last week's Eleventh Circuit opinion in Snell v. United Specialty Insurance, notable for a concurrence outlining the use of artificial intelligence to evaluate a term's common meaning, is hopefully the first step toward developing a coherent basis for the judiciary's generative AI use, says David Zaslowsky at Baker McKenzie.
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A Look At M&A Conditions After FTC's Exxon-Pioneer Nod
The Federal Trade Commission's recent consent decree imposing several conditions on Exxon Mobil's acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources helps illustrate key points about the current merger enforcement environment, including the probability of further investigations in the energy and pharmaceutical sectors, say Ryan Quillian and John Kendrick at Covington.
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Opinion
US Solar Import Probe's Focus On China Is Misguided
The U.S. Department of Commerce's recent anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigation focuses on the apparent Chinese ownership of solar device importers in four Southeast Asian countries — a point that is irrelevant under the controlling statute, says John Anwesen at Lighthill.
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3 Recent Decisions To Note As Climate Litigation Heats Up
Three recent rulings on climate-related issues — from a New York federal court, a New York state court and an international tribunal, respectively — demonstrate both regulators' concern about climate change and the complexity of conflicting regulations in different jurisdictions, say J. Michael Showalter and Robert Middleton at ArentFox Schiff.
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12 Keys To Successful Post-Trial Juror Interviews
Post-trial interviews offer attorneys an avenue to gain valuable insights into juror decision making and get feedback that can inform future litigation strategies, but certain best practices must be followed to get the most out of this research tool, say Alexa Hiley and Brianna Smith at IMS Legal.
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New TSCA Risk Rule Gives EPA Broad Discretion On Science
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recent final amendments to its framework for evaluating the risks of chemical substances under the Toxic Substances Control Act give it vast discretion over consideration of scientific information, without objective criteria to guide that discretion, say John McGahren and Debra Carfora at Morgan Lewis.
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Perspectives
Trauma-Informed Legal Approaches For Pro Bono Attorneys
As National Trauma Awareness Month ends, pro bono attorneys should nevertheless continue to acknowledge the mental and physical effects of trauma, allowing them to better represent clients, and protect themselves from compassion fatigue and burnout, say Katherine Cronin at Stinson and Katharine Manning at Blackbird.
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Series
Playing Music Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My deep and passionate involvement in playing, writing and producing music equipped me with skills — like creativity, improvisation and problem-solving — that contribute to the success of my legal career, says attorney Kenneth Greene.
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Contractors Must Prep For FAR Council GHG Emissions Rule
With the U.S. Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council expected to finalize its proposed rule on the disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions and climate-related financial risk this year, government contractors should take key steps now to get ready, say Thomas Daley at DLA Piper, Steven Rothstein at the Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets, and John Kostyack at Kostyack Strategies.
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Lessons In High-Profile Jury Selection Amid NY Trump Trial
Richard Gabriel and Michelle Rey LaRocca at Decision Analysis consider how media exposure can affect a prospective juror in a high-profile case, the misunderstood nature of bias, and recommendations for jury selection in these unique situations as the Trump hush money trial continues in New York.
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How Attys Can Avoid Pitfalls When Withdrawing From A Case
The Trump campaign's recent scuffle over its bid to replace its counsel in a pregnancy retaliation suit offers a chance to remind attorneys that many troubles inherent in withdrawing from a case can be mitigated or entirely avoided by communicating with clients openly and frequently, says Christopher Konneker at Orsinger Nelson.
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Opinion
We Need A Legislative Path To Power Plant Emissions Cuts
With the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's newest regulation targeting power plant carbon emissions likely to be overturned by courts or a future administration, it's time for bipartisan legislation to preserve affordable, reliable electricity while substantially decarbonizing the sector by midcentury, say Jeffrey Holmstead at Bracewell and Samuel Thernstrom at the Energy Innovation Reform Project.
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Using A Children's Book Approach In Firm Marketing Content
From “The Giving Tree” to “Where the Wild Things Are,” most children’s books are easy to remember because they use simple words and numbers to tell stories with a human impact — a formula law firms should emulate in their marketing content to stay front of mind for potential clients, says Seema Desai Maglio at The Found Word.