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Environmental
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April 02, 2024
Ohio Regulator Urges Justices To Review FERC Deadlock Rule
The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Third Circuit's decision upholding a rule change from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that took effect despite a commissioner deadlock, arguing that the appellate court didn't apply a fitting standard.
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April 02, 2024
Former Trump EPA Leader Joins Holland & Hart In DC
Holland & Hart LLP has added the leader of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the Trump administration to its Washington, D.C., office as part of the firm's strategic growth in the country's capital.
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April 02, 2024
Another Judge Says Feds Overstepped With GHG Rule
A Kentucky federal judge has sided with Kentucky and 20 other Republican-led states, ruling that the Federal Highway Administration overstepped its authority with a rule directing states to set targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions from federally funded highway projects.
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April 02, 2024
20 Republican-Led States Urge Justices To Ax Climate Suits
A coalition of 20 Republican-led states and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, along with eight others, have thrown their support behind fossil fuel companies in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to put an end to climate change torts lodged by state and local governments.
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April 02, 2024
La. Property Owners, Insurers To Arbitrate Hurricane Claims
A Hurricane Ida damage coverage dispute between seven New Orleans-area property owners and their insurers will be stayed pending arbitration, a Louisiana federal judge ruled, agreeing with the insurers that the policy's arbitration agreement is enforceable under the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards.
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April 02, 2024
Latham-Led SLB To Buy ChampionX In $7.8B All-Stock Deal
Energy-focused global technology company SLB and chemistry solutions provider ChampionX Corp. said Tuesday they have agreed for SLB to purchase ChampionX in an all-stock transaction worth nearly $7.8 billion.
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April 01, 2024
EPA Asks 4th Circ. To Review Panel's Split Ozone Decision
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has told the Fourth Circuit that a panel of judges incorrectly rejected its attempt to move West Virginia's lawsuit over an ozone regulation program to a different court.
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April 01, 2024
Forest Service Must Revisit Changes To Timber Standards
An Oregon federal judge has agreed to set aside an environmental analysis for timber standard changes the U.S. Forest Service approved for millions of acres of federal land across eastern Oregon and Washington, finding no errors in a magistrate judge's conclusion that the agency violated multiple federal statutes.
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April 01, 2024
Feds Catch Win In Alaska Subsistence Fishing Dispute
A federal judge has granted the U.S. government's bid for an early win in its challenge against Alaska over subsistence fishing rules in the Kuskokwim River, which runs through the state's southwest region, ruling that the United States is entitled to a permanent injunction.
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April 01, 2024
States Want Justices To Send Ozone Fight Back To 10th Circ.
Oklahoma, Utah and a coalition of industry groups are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to declare that their fight over compliance with federal ozone standards belongs in the Tenth Circuit, not the D.C. Circuit.
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April 01, 2024
Nike Defeats Greenwashing Suit Over 'Sustainability' Line
Nike has defeated a proposed class action alleging it greenwashes its clothing by claiming they're made sustainably while using methods that harm the environment, after a Missouri federal judge concluded the plaintiff doesn't explain how she knows the products aren't made with recycled or organic materials and only provides conclusory statements.
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April 01, 2024
Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court
Last week, Delaware's Court of Chancery saw a $42.5 million settlement, dismissal of two big suits with two more remanded back, and new cases from shareholders of Walt Disney, Donald Trump's Truth Social, Rivian Automotive and BarkBox.
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April 01, 2024
Shell Ordered To Hand Over Docs In Conn. Climate Dispute
Shell Oil Co. must hand over several documents by the end of April in litigation concerning the company's alleged failure to take into account climate change risks at a fuel storage facility in New Haven, Connecticut, a federal magistrate judge has ruled in an attempt to end the parties' long-running discovery dispute.
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April 01, 2024
Tribe, Allies Defend Standing To Fight Corps' Fish Farm Permit
The Army Corps of Engineers is trying to "muddy the water" to fend off a challenge to a nationwide permit opening ocean waters to aquaculture operations, failing to justify why the permit shouldn't be scrapped, the Quinault Indian Nation and nonprofit allies have told a Washington federal judge.
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April 01, 2024
3M Gets Final OK On PFAS Deal Worth Up To $12.5B
A South Carolina federal judge on Friday gave a final nod on a settlement between 3M and about 12,000 public water systems worth up to $12.5 billion to end claims over so-called forever chemicals in firefighting foam, saying that otherwise it would take years to try the cases.
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April 01, 2024
Gas Cos. Must Face State Law Claims In Contamination Row
Electricity and natural gas company WEC Energy Group Inc. can't dodge all claims by Illinois residents accusing the company and its subsidiary of conspiring with a public relations firm to hide the extent of natural gas contamination in an aquifer that provides drinking water, an Illinois federal judge ruled Sunday.
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April 01, 2024
Reduced Dolphin Threat Revives US-New Zealand Fish Trade
New Zealand's fisheries can begin shipping seafood to the U.S. again, after the U.S. Court of International Trade accepted a finding on Monday that the New Zealand government had taken steps to protect the endangered Maui dolphin from harmful fishing techniques.
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April 01, 2024
SunZia Power Line Challenge Is Ripe, Arizona Tribes Say
A coalition of Arizona tribes and conservation groups challenging the federal government's green light for SunZia Transmission LLC to start building a stretch of its 550-mile, high-voltage power line are defending the timeliness of their bid to halt work and compel the Bureau of Land Management to identify and safeguard cultural sites and sacred areas in the San Pedro Valley.
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April 01, 2024
Insurer Defends Gas Station Cleanup Exclusion To 11th Circ.
An insurer has asked the Eleventh Circuit to reject a Florida gas station owner's bid to make it pay for contamination caused by a leaking underground fuel tank, telling the appeals court the station's policy doesn't cover an incident discovered well before the policy went into effect.
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April 01, 2024
GE Vernova Spinoff Approved, Valued At $35.7B
General Electric Co. said its board has approved the previously announced spinoff of its electric power business GE Vernova, setting the new company up to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on April 2.
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March 29, 2024
High Bar To Meet For Novel Protest Over $45B DOE Deal
The U.S. Department of Energy's deviation from typical federal acquisition rules to award a $45 billion contract to a company previously deemed ineligible is raising eyebrows among government contracting attorneys, but may nonetheless find support in court.
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March 29, 2024
Liberty Sues SEC Again Over Climate Disclosure Regs
Liberty Energy Inc. filed a complaint against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Texas federal court, marking the company's second attempt at challenging the agency's corporate climate disclosure regulations after its previous Fifth Circuit petition was transferred to the Eighth Circuit.
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March 29, 2024
Tribes Lose Challenge To Minnesota Water Quality Regs
A Minnesota federal judge on Friday shot down a suit by two Native American tribes accusing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of allowing the state to adopt less protective water quality standards that could harm their reservations' wildlife and crops.
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March 29, 2024
DC Circ. Nixes Challenges To Gas Industry Projects
Federal energy regulators had broad discretion to approve "good cause" construction deadline extensions for a gas pipeline across New York state and a Texas Gulf Coast gas terminal expansion, according to a D.C. Circuit panel opinion on Friday that rejected conservation groups' challenges to the projects.
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March 29, 2024
Nikola Says Convicted Ex-CEO Plotting Illegal Board Takeover
Electric truck manufacturer Nikola Corp. sued its former CEO and convicted felon Trevor Milton in Arizona federal court Friday, accusing him of scheming with unqualified loyalists to regain control of the company by flouting securities laws, infringing Nikola's trademarks and breaching agreements.
Expert Analysis
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Opinion
Animal Rights Are About Saving Nature, And Our Own Future
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.
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How Attorneys Can Be More Efficient This Holiday Season
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.
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Clean Water Act Jurisdiction Still Murky After A Choppy 2023
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.
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Series
Children's Book Writing Makes Me A Better Lawyer
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.
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Parsing 2023's Energy Markets Enforcement
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.
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A Review Of 2023's Most Notable Securities Litigation
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.
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'Brownfields' Definition Key To Energy Community Tax Credits
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.
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ESG Investing Caught In Culture War Crosshairs In 2023
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.
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Inside CFTC's Latest Push To Regulate Carbon Markets
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.
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How Clients May Use AI To Monitor Attorneys
Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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.
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Energy Sector Takeaways From Biden's AI Executive Order
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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Lessons From This Year's Landmark Green Energy IP Clash
In this year's Siemens v. General Electric wind turbine patent dispute, a Massachusetts federal court offers a cautionary tale against willful infringement, and highlights the balance between innovation, law and ethics, as legal battles like this become more frequent in the renewable energy sector, say John Powell and Andrew Siuta at Sunstein.
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Series
ESG Around The World: Singapore
Singapore is keen to establish itself as a leading international financial center and a key player in the sustainable finance ecosystem, and key initiatives led by its government and other regulatory bodies have helped the Asian nation progress from its initially guarded attitude toward ESG investment and reporting, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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Series
The Pop Culture Docket: Judge D'Emic On Moby Grape
The 1968 Moby Grape song "Murder in My Heart for the Judge" tells the tale of a fictional defendant treated with scorn by the judge, illustrating how much the legal system has evolved in the past 50 years, largely due to problem-solving courts and the principles of procedural justice, says Kings County Supreme Court Administrative Judge Matthew D'Emic.
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Series
Performing Music Makes Me A Better Lawyer
The discipline of performing live music has directly and positively influenced my effectiveness as a litigator — serving as a reminder that practice, intuition and team building are all important elements of a successful law practice, says Jeff Wakolbinger at Bryan Cave.