Environmental

  • July 14, 2025

    Feds Argue Trump's Energy Orders Should Not Be Blocked

    The federal government is fighting an effort to block President Donald Trump's fossil fuel-boosting executive orders that was filed by youths alleging U.S. energy policies harm their future by exacerbating climate change.

  • July 14, 2025

    Amazon Aims To Flush 'Greenwashing' Toilet Paper Suit

    Amazon.com Inc. is asking a Washington federal court to throw out a proposed class action alleging it "greenwashed" its toilet paper products by misleading consumers about the source of wood for the products, saying the plaintiffs can't read their subjective expectations into the labeling.

  • July 14, 2025

    Mazda Slams 'Frivolous' Filings In Tossed Oil Burning Suit

    Mazda Motor of America Inc. is threatening sanctions against the leader of a now-dismissed proposed class action alleging it sold vehicles with an oil burning defect, saying he is retreading since-debunked arguments and misstating facts in his bid to revive his case.

  • July 11, 2025

    5th Circ. Cites Expert Errors In Rejecting BP Spill Sinus Claims

    The Fifth Circuit has ended a cleanup worker's toxic tort lawsuit against BP Exploration & Production Inc. claiming he suffered sinus issues from cleaning up the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill, saying his experts' testimony, some of which was riddled with errors, was properly ejected by the trial court.

  • July 11, 2025

    Colo. Court Mostly Backs Coal Mine In Water Permit Dispute

    A Colorado appeals court said that most of the stormwater discharges produced by a mining company in Gunnison County do not require a permit, reversing lower court and administrative judge rulings.

  • July 11, 2025

    Courts Face Early Push To Expand Justices' Injunction Ruling

    In the two weeks since the U.S. Supreme Court curtailed federal judges' ability to issue universal injunctions, Trump administration attorneys have begun pushing to expand the decision's limits to other forms of relief used in regulatory challenges and class actions. So far, judges don't appear receptive to those efforts. 

  • July 11, 2025

    9th Circ. Upholds Feds' Arctic Ringed Seal ESA Protections

    The Ninth Circuit on Friday upheld the federal government's Endangered Species Act protections for Arctic ringed seals and rejected Alaska's effort to roll them back.

  • July 11, 2025

    Homeowners Must Take Water Damage Coverage Suit To Trial

    A suit brought by Illinois homeowners seeking more than $5 million in coverage for damage caused by a burst pipe during an extreme temperature drop is headed to trial after an Illinois federal court found that too many issues of material fact remain unresolved.

  • July 11, 2025

    Dow, Others Can't Duck NY Water District's Contamination Suit

    Dow and two other companies must face a New York state water district's claims that they contaminated drinking water supply wells with a highly toxic chemical, a federal judge has said.

  • July 11, 2025

    Hess Faces Investor Suit Over $53B Chevron Deal

    As the parties await the result of a critical arbitration proceeding that could sink a planned $53 billion sale of Hess to Chevron, a shareholder is arguing that the deal disproportionately benefits CEO John Hess at the expense of the company's investors.

  • July 11, 2025

    Transportation Policies To Watch In 2025: A Midyear Report

    Sweeping new tariffs, revised vehicle emission and fuel-economy standards, and aviation safety reforms are some of the transportation industry's top regulatory priorities to watch in the second half of 2025.

  • July 10, 2025

    Trump Taps Holland & Hart Partner For Montana Bench

    President Donald Trump announced on social media Thursday he has chosen a Holland & Hart LLP partner and veteran government attorney to serve on the federal bench in Montana.

  • July 10, 2025

    Fla. Lawmakers Sue DeSantis Over Detention Center Access

    Democratic state lawmakers in Florida sued Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday to demand access to the new immigrant detention center in the Everglades the lawmakers say they were blocked from visiting last week.

  • July 10, 2025

    NC Officials Reject Protest Of $81.5M Helene Contract

    The North Carolina Department of Commerce rejected a Morrisville company's protest of its decision to award an $81.5 million contract for disaster recovery operations in connection with Hurricane Helene to an out-of-state vendor. 

  • July 10, 2025

    Property Co. Says State Farm Wrongfully Delayed Fire Claim

    A State Farm unit acted in bad faith by unreasonably delaying and denying coverage for a fire that damaged a downtown Denver property more than two years ago, the property owner said in a suit removed to Colorado federal court.

  • July 10, 2025

    ​​​​​​​DOJ Says Calif. Animal Welfare 'Red Tape' Inflates Egg Prices

    The U.S. Department of Justice sued California and state officials over several animal welfare laws passed in the Golden State that the federal government claims has contributed to the "historic rise in egg prices by imposing unnecessary red tape on the production of eggs."

  • July 10, 2025

    Sunoco Faces Another Suit Over Jet Fuel Pipeline Leak In Pa.

    Sunoco has been slapped with another lawsuit in Philadelphia County Court alleging that a leaky pipeline resulted in jet fuel and other petroleum products contaminating residential property, groundwater, soil and air.

  • July 10, 2025

    4th Circ. Pauses Air Quality Suit As EPA Rethinks W.Va. Plan

    The Fourth Circuit on Thursday granted a request to pause West Virginia's ozone regulation lawsuit so the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency can reconsider the state's air quality compliance plan.

  • July 10, 2025

    Groups Ask 9th Circ. To Sink EPA Pesticide Seed Exemption

    Green groups on Wednesday asked the Ninth Circuit to revive their lawsuit alleging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is violating federal law by failing to regulate pesticide-coated crop seeds.

  • July 10, 2025

    DuPont Reaches $27M Settlement In NY PFAS Case

    The members of a proposed class of hundreds of residents whose drinking water was tainted by "forever chemicals" have told a New York federal judge that they've reached a $27 million deal with DuPont, ending claims that it is responsible for the contamination, putting the total settlements achieved at $92 million.

  • July 10, 2025

    10th Circ. Affirms Sentence In $1B Energy Tax Credit Scheme

    A leader of a renewable-energy scheme that illicitly sought $1 billion in tax credits failed to persuade the Tenth Circuit to overturn his conviction by arguing that jurors were biased when his lawyer was identified as having helped Michael Jackson beat child molestation charges.

  • July 10, 2025

    Trump Says 50% Copper Tariff Will Begin Aug. 1

    President Donald Trump said his new 50% tariff on copper imports will take effect Aug. 1, citing national security concerns.

  • July 10, 2025

    SpaceX Seeks Record $400B Valuation, Plus More Rumors

    Elon Musk's satellite and rocket maker SpaceX is planning to raise money in a private round that would value the company at a record $400 billion, Starbucks China is seeking bids for a stake sale that could value the chain at $10 billion, plus online fashion giant Shein hopes to salvage its long-awaited IPO by listing in Hong Kong.

  • July 09, 2025

    Insurer Accused Of Dodging $2M Claims For Hurricane Beryl

    A car dealership told a Texas federal judge that its insurance company stiffed it to the tune of $2 million after Hurricane Beryl blew through and damaged multiple buildings, saying in a Wednesday complaint the insurer wrongly found the damages fell below the deductible.

  • July 09, 2025

    Sierra Club Says OMB Ignoring Funding Freeze Info Requests

    The Office of Management and Budget's refusal to produce records concerning the Trump administration's freeze of federal funding programs is impeding the Sierra Club's mission to advocate for and educate the public about pressing public health and environmental issues, the environmental organization alleged Tuesday in California federal court.

Expert Analysis

  • Justices Rewrite Rules For Challenging Enviro Agency Actions

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    Three recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings — Nuclear Regulatory Commission v. Texas, Oklahoma v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and EPA v. Calumet Shreveport Refining — form a jurisprudential watershed in administrative and environmental law, affirming statutory standing and venue provisions as the backbone of coherent judicial review, say attorneys at GableGotwals.

  • Series

    My Opera And Baseball Careers Make Me A Better Lawyer

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    Though participating in opera and the world of professional baseball often pulls me away from the office, my avocations improve my legal career by helping me perform under scrutiny, prioritize team success, and maintain joy and perspective at work, says Adam Unger at Herrick Feinstein.

  • 8 Ways Lawyers Can Protect The Rule Of Law In Their Work

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    Whether they are concerned with judicial independence, regulatory predictability or client confidence, lawyers can take specific meaningful actions on their own when traditional structures are too slow or too compromised to respond, says Angeli Patel at the Berkeley Center of Law and Business.

  • Despite Dark Clouds, Outlook For US Solar Has Bright Spots

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    While tariff, tax policy and bankruptcy news seemingly portends unending challenges for the U.S. solar energy industry, signs of continued growth in solar generating capacity and domestic solar manufacturing suggest that there is a path forward, say attorneys at Beveridge & Diamond.

  • ICSID Annulment Proceedings Carry High Stakes For System

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    The annulment proceedings brought by Freeport-McMoRan before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, seeking to redress a glaring and prejudicial oversight in its arbitral award against Peru, are significant for delimiting the boundaries of procedural fairness within the ICSID's annulment framework, says Josep Galvez at 4-5 Gray's Inn.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Communicating With Clients

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    Law school curricula often overlook client communication procedures, and those who actively teach this crucial facet of the practice can create exceptional client satisfaction and success, says Patrick Hanson at Wiggam Law.

  • Justices' NRC Ruling Raises New Regulatory Questions

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    In Nuclear Regulatory Commission v. Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court avoided ruling on the NRC's authority to license private, temporary nuclear waste storage facilities — and this failure to reach the merits question creates new regulatory uncertainty where none had existed for decades, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • 3 Judicial Approaches To Applying Loper Bright, 1 Year Later

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    In the year since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Chevron deference in its Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision, a few patterns have emerged in lower courts’ application of the precedent to determine whether agency actions are lawful, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.

  • Bill Leaves Renewable Cos. In Dark On Farmland Reporting

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    A U.S. Senate bill to update disclosure requirements for foreign control of U.S. farmland does not provide much-needed guidance on how to report renewable energy development on agricultural property, leaving significant compliance risks for project developers, say attorneys at Hodgson Russ.

  • Series

    Adapting To Private Practice: From US Rep. To Boutique Firm

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    My transition from serving as a member of Congress to becoming a partner at a boutique firm has been remarkably smooth, in part because I never stopped exercising my legal muscles, maintained relationships with my former colleagues and set the right tone at the outset, says Mondaire Jones at Friedman Kaplan.

  • Opinion

    Senate's 41% Litigation Finance Tax Would Hurt Legal System

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    The Senate’s latest version of the Big Beautiful Bill Act would impose a 41% tax on the litigation finance industry, but the tax is totally disconnected from the concerns it purports to address, and it would set the country back to a time when small plaintiffs had little recourse against big defendants, says Anthony Sebok at Cardozo School of Law.

  • 3 Juror Psychology Principles For Expert Witness Testimony

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    Expert witnesses can sometimes fall into traps when trying to teach juries complex topics by failing to consider the psychology of juror comprehension, but attorneys can help witnesses avoid these pitfalls with a deeper understanding of cognitive lag, chunking and learning styles, says Steve Wood at Courtroom Sciences.

  • In NRC Ruling, Justices Affirm Hearing Process Still Matters

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Nuclear Regulatory Commission v. Texas safeguards the fairness, clarity and predictability of the regulatory system by affirming that to challenge an agency's decision in court, litigants must first meaningfully participate in the hearing process that Congress and the agency have established, says Jonathan Rund at the Nuclear Energy Institute.

  • Series

    Performing As A Clown Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    To say that being a clown in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has changed my legal career would truly be an understatement — by creating an opening to converse on a unique topic, it has allowed me to connect with clients, counsel and even judges on a deeper level, says Charles Tatelbaum at Tripp Scott.

  • How Energy Cos. Can Prepare For Potential Tax Credit Cuts

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    The Senate Finance Committee's version of the One Big Beautiful Bill act would create a steep phaseout of renewable energy tax credits, which should prompt companies to take several actions, including conduct a project review to discern which could begin construction before the end of the year, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.

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