Try our Advanced Search for more refined results
Environmental
-
May 29, 2024
Texas Judge Bans Using $1.4B Border Wall Funds For Repairs
A Texas federal judge on Wednesday permanently blocked the White House from using $1.4 billion of border wall construction funding for barrier repair, rejecting requests from landowners, contractors and environmental groups to reconsider the scope of the ban.
-
May 29, 2024
No Sanctions Over Drone Video For Houston Cancer MDL Atty
A state judge said Wednesday that she wasn't planning on sanctioning an attorney representing Houston residents living near a contaminated rail yard for allowing allegedly improper drone videos to be taken over the site despite telling the lawyer that the "miscommunication" with his staff is "really on you."
-
May 29, 2024
Neoprene Co. Calls EPA Rule Deadline 'Surprise Switcharoo'
A Louisiana-based neoprene manufacturer is asking the D.C. Circuit to immediately block the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from enforcing a chemical emissions rule that will directly impact the company.
-
May 29, 2024
Colombian Court Affirms Fossil Fuel Tax Break Must Stay
The Constitutional Court of Colombia affirmed its decision to strike down a law denying fossil fuel companies the ability to offset corporate income tax liabilities with deductions for royalty payments despite a severe impact to public finances, the country's president said.
-
May 29, 2024
8th Circ. Backs Ark. Landowners' Jury Win In Flooding Suit
The Eighth Circuit has upheld a group of Arkansas landowners' nearly $350,000 jury win in their lawsuit accusing Lawrence County of building a bridge that caused flooding that damaged their crops.
-
May 29, 2024
Treasury Details Which Tech Would Get Clean Energy Credits
Treasury released proposed rules Wednesday outlining which technologies would qualify for new zero-emission energy tax credits, saying wind, solar and geothermal are among those that would make the cut.
-
May 28, 2024
Orsted Inks $125M Deal With NJ Over Scrapped Wind Farms
Orsted, a Danish wind energy company, has agreed to pay New Jersey $125 million to settle claims over the company's abrupt cancellation last fall of two offshore wind farms.
-
May 28, 2024
Green Group Says EPA Issued Fraudulent PFAS Report
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lied to the public about the prevalence of what have come to be called "forever chemicals" in certain pesticide products available on the market, according to an advocacy group that has accused the agency of "egregious misconduct."
-
May 28, 2024
Agribiz Pushes Ninth Circ. To Reverse Land Swap Decision
A global agribusiness with operations in Idaho has again asked the Ninth Circuit to reverse a lower court's "misguided" holding under the National Environmental Policy Act that favored the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes in their challenge to a U.S. Department of the Interior land transfer.
-
May 28, 2024
White House Looks To Boost Carbon Credit Market Integrity
The Biden administration on Tuesday released new guidelines for voluntary carbon markets, touting the measures as a foundation for "ambitious and credible climate action" that also attempts to address questions about the integrity of credits that companies use to show a greener footprint.
-
May 28, 2024
Chevron Confident As Hess Shareholders Approve $53B Deal
Hess Corp. said Tuesday it has received the necessary stockholder approvals to close its $53 billion sale to Chevron Corp., as Chevron separately expressed confidence that it will prevail in an ongoing dispute with Exxon Mobil Corp. and wrap up the regulatory process soon.
-
May 28, 2024
States, Greens Want Judgment Over USPS' New Vehicle Plan
Environmentalists and a coalition of 17 states called on a California federal judge to grant them judgment in litigation alleging the U.S. Postal Service violated the National Environmental Policy Act when it decided to replace its aging delivery fleet with "gas-guzzling vehicles."
-
May 28, 2024
US Property Insurers See Record Investment Income In 2023
U.S. property and casualty insurers earned a record income of $73.9 billion from their investments in 2023, market analyst AM Best reported Tuesday, a bright spot for an industry beset by underwriting losses connected to natural disasters and high inflation.
-
May 28, 2024
Groups Fight Calif. AG's Subpoenas In Plastic Waste Probe
Two chemical and plastic industry groups have accused California Attorney General Rob Bonta of violating their First Amendment rights by demanding they hand over privileged documents as part of an investigation into global plastics pollution, in a pair of complaints filed in D.C. federal court.
-
May 28, 2024
Tribe Says Enbridge's Trespass Concern Wasted Court's Time
A Wisconsin tribe has told the Seventh Circuit that Enbridge Energy wasted the court's time raising concerns that an old tribal trespass ordinance could cost the company millions in fines, saying it has nothing to do with the tribe's attempts to stop the Line 5 pipeline.
-
May 28, 2024
Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court
Delaware Court of Chancery watchers shifted their focus last week from the courtroom to Dover's legislative hall, as proposed amendments to Delaware's corporate code were finally introduced to state lawmakers. Hearings, decisions and reversals involved Kraft-Heinz, AMC Entertainment and the merger of cryptocurrency companies BitGo and Galaxy. In case you missed it, here's the latest from Delaware's Chancery Court.
-
May 28, 2024
Insurers, Charter School Assoc. Dismiss Ida Damage Row
A New Orleans-area charter school system and its insurers have agreed to dismiss their dispute over coverage for the system's Hurricane Ida damage claims, the parties told a Louisiana federal court Tuesday, saying "all claims and causes of action brought forth in the above captioned matter have been compromised."
-
May 28, 2024
FERC Wrong To Backtrack On Grid Project Plan, DC Circ. Told
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission unlawfully reversed course on a regional grid operator's plan to spread out the costs of transmission upgrade projects, unfairly saddling customers within certain areas with higher bills, two Kansas electricity cooperatives have told the D.C. Circuit.
-
May 28, 2024
Exxon Investor Broadens Promise To Nix Climate Proxy Bid
An activist investor sued by Exxon Mobil Corp. over a now-withdrawn shareholder proposal concerning climate change has again called on the oil giant to withdraw its suit after broadening its previous promise not to resubmit the proposal in the future.
-
May 28, 2024
5 Firms To Steer Pair Of Large IPOs That Could Net $1.8B Total
Private-equity backed hospital billing firm Waystar Holding Corp. and aluminum recycling giant Novelis Inc. on Tuesday launched plans for two initial public offerings that could raise an estimated $1.8 billion combined, guided by five law firms, potentially testing the strength of the IPO market's recovery.
-
May 28, 2024
Justices Pass On Fight Over FERC Power Market Cap Rule
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to review a D.C. Circuit decision backing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's change of bidding practices for electricity capacity auctions run by PJM Interconnection, the nation's largest regional grid operator.
-
May 28, 2024
Justices Will Review EPA's 'Vague' SF Water Pollution Regs
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to review the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's decision to set "vague" and "generic" pollution prohibitions for San Francisco, as opposed to numerical standards.
-
May 24, 2024
Red States Target Blue States In Push To End Climate Torts
A novel red-state request that the U.S. Supreme Court nix climate change torts brought by state governments against fossil fuel companies can be seen as an attempt to urge the justices not to pass up another opportunity to weigh in on the issue, legal experts told Law360.
-
May 24, 2024
Florida Urges Quick Appeal Of Wetlands Permitting Decision
The state of Florida has pushed to expedite its appeal of a lower court ruling that stripped the state of its federally delegated authority to permit wetlands development after the D.C. Circuit declined to pause the ruling's implementation earlier this week.
-
May 24, 2024
Green Groups Lose In California Fish Protection Lawsuit
The federal government properly considered the needs of fish protected under the Endangered Species Act when it approved water supply contracts for California's Central Valley Project, the Ninth Circuit said in a ruling rejecting environmental groups' claims to the contrary.
Expert Analysis
-
What A Louisiana Ruling Means For Pipeline Crossings
After a Louisiana appeals court's recent ruling on a conflict between two pipeline projects, operators and developers should review pipeline crossings to ensure that they occur at safe distances — and keep in mind the value of crossing agreements for protecting both sides in case of a dispute, say attorneys at McGuireWoods.
-
ECHR Ruling May Pave Path For A UK Climate Damage Tort
In light of case law on the interaction between human rights law and common law, the European Court of Human Rights' recent ruling in KlimaSeniorinnen v. Switzerland, finding the country at fault for failures to tackle global warming, could tip the scales toward extending English tort law to cover climate change-related losses, say lawyers at Cleary.
-
Opinion
Climate Change Shouldn't Be Litigated Under State Laws
The U.S. Supreme Court should reverse the Hawaii Supreme Court's October decision in Honolulu v. Sunoco that Hawaii could apply state law to emissions generated outside the state, because it would lead to a barrage of cases seeking to resolve a worldwide problem according to 50 different variations of state law, says Andrew Ketterer at Ketterer & Ketterer.
-
Regulating Resurrected Species Under The ESA
As the prospect of extinct species being resurrected from DNA and reintroduced into the wild grows closer, an analysis of the Endangered Species Act suggests that it could provide a thoughtful, flexible governance framework for such scenarios, say Caroline Meadows and Shelby Bobosky at the SMU Dedman School of Law.
-
E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Text Message Data
Electronically stored information on cellphones, and in particular text messages, can present unique litigation challenges, and recent court decisions demonstrate that counsel must carefully balance what data should be preserved, collected, reviewed and produced, say attorneys at Sidley.
-
What CRA Deadline Means For Biden Admin. Rulemaking
With the 2024 election rapidly approaching, the Biden administration must race to finalize proposed agency actions within the next few weeks, or be exposed to the chance that the following Congress will overturn the rules under the Congressional Review Act, say attorneys at Covington.
-
IP Considerations For Companies In Carbon Capture Sector
As companies collaborate to commercialize carbon capture technologies amid massive government investment under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a coherent intellectual property strategy is more important than ever, including proactively addressing and resolving questions about ownership of the technology, say Ashley Kennedy and James De Vellis at Foley & Lardner.
-
Keeping Up With Class Actions: A New Era Of Higher Stakes
Corporate defendants saw unprecedented settlement numbers across all areas of class action litigation in 2022 and 2023, and this year has kept pace so far, with three settlements that stand out for the nature of the claims and for their high dollar amounts, says Gerald Maatman at Duane Morris.
-
5 Climate Change Regulatory Issues Insurers Should Follow
The climate change landscape for insurers has changed dramatically recently — and not just because of the controversy over the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate-related risk disclosure rules, says Thomas Dawson at McDermott.
-
What's Extraordinary About Challenges To SEC Climate Rule
A set of ideologically diverse legal challenges to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate disclosure rule have been consolidated in the Eighth Circuit via a seldom-used lottery system, and the unpredictability of this process may drive agencies toward a more cautious future approach to rulemaking, say attorneys at Thompson Coburn.
-
Series
Swimming Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Years of participation in swimming events, especially in the open water, have proven to be ideal preparation for appellate arguments in court — just as you must put your trust in the ocean when competing in a swim event, you must do the same with the judicial process, says John Kulewicz at Vorys.
-
Opinion
SEC Doesn't Have Legal Authority For Climate Disclosure Rule
Instead of making the required legal argument to establish its authority, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate-related disclosure rule hides behind more than 1,000 references to materiality to give the appearance that its rule is legally defensible, says Bernard Sharfman at RealClearFoundation.
-
What 100 Federal Cases Suggest About Changes To Chevron
With the U.S. Supreme Court poised to overturn or narrow its 40-year-old doctrine of Chevron deference, a review of 100 recent federal district court decisions confirm that changes to the Chevron framework will have broad ramifications — but the magnitude of the impact will depend on the details of the high court's ruling, say Kali Schellenberg and Jon Cochran at LeVan Stapleton.
-
Opinion
SEC Should Be Allowed To Equip Investors With Climate Info
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's new rule to require more climate-related disclosures will provide investors with much-needed clarity, despite opponents' attempts to challenge the rule with misused legal arguments, say Sarah Goetz at Democracy Forward and Cynthia Hanawalt at Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change.
-
Microplastics At The Crossroads Of Regulation And Litigation
Though there are currently not many federal regulations specifically addressing microplastics as pollutants, regulatory scrutiny and lawsuits asserting consumer protection claims are both on the rise, and manufacturers should take proactive steps to implement preventive measures accordingly, say Aliza Karetnick and Franco Corrado at Morgan Lewis.