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Environmental
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April 15, 2025
DC Circ. Zaps FERC Fight Over Grain Belt Express Line
A D.C. Circuit panel on Monday said Illinois landowners, farmers and residents fighting the $7 billion Grain Belt Express high-voltage transmission project lack standing to challenge a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission order that amended its negotiated rate authority.
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April 14, 2025
SEC Clears Green Impact Exchange To Enter Market In 2026
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday cleared a proposal by Green Impact Exchange to launch the first sustainability focused national securities exchange, scheduled to begin operating in 2026.
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April 14, 2025
Judge Says Barretts Needs Independence To Resolve Ch. 11
A Texas bankruptcy judge on Monday said he would have to consider ways to increase Barretts Minerals Inc.'s perceived independence from its parent company if he agrees to allow the talc miner to stay in Chapter 11.
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April 14, 2025
Allianz Unit Challenges Augusta Golf Club's $2.4M Award
Allianz SE subsidiary Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. on Friday asked a federal judge to strike down a $2.4 million storm damage appraisal in favor of an Augusta, Georgia, golf club that the insurer said goes far beyond what it agreed to cover.
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April 14, 2025
Monsanto's 11th Trial Kicks Off In Seattle Over School PCBs
Nearly two dozen people told a Washington state jury Monday that they were slowly sickened by Monsanto-made toxins, becoming the largest group yet to try their PCB personal injury claims together in a series of PCB personal injury suits connected to a Washington school.
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April 14, 2025
9th Circ. Revives Suit Over Calif. Refinery's Pollution
A Ninth Circuit panel revived part of a class action that neighbors of a Torrance, California, refinery brought against Exxon Mobil Corp. and Torrance Refining Co. over its pollution, holding that a lower court misconstrued the scope of a trespass claim.
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April 14, 2025
Calif. Board Says SpaceX Suit Should Be Grounded For Good
The California Coastal Commission moved Friday for another dismissal of SpaceX's suit alleging the commission wrongly tried to block its plan to increase rocket launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, saying because the commission's opposition was overridden by the U.S. Air Force, no harm was caused.
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April 14, 2025
Feds Push To End Alaska Tribe's Gold Mine Permit Challenge
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and a gold mine developer are asking a federal court for permission to move for early dismissal of an Alaskan tribe's remaining claim against an open-pit gold mine near the Yukon border, saying its amended lawsuit doesn't fare better than the original.
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April 14, 2025
Trump Admin Moves To Weaken Migratory Bird Protections
The top lawyer at the U.S. Department of the Interior says the federal government lacks the power to prosecute companies that inadvertently kill federally protected migratory birds, a legal position the department took during the first Trump administration but which was overturned by a federal court in 2020.
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April 14, 2025
Enviro Groups Sue Trump Admin Over Webpage Removals
Environmental and science organizations, including the Sierra Club, filed suit on Monday in D.C. federal court over the Trump administration's removal of federal agency webpages that provided critical information concerning the environment, saying agencies removed the webpages without explanation, leaving the organizations unable to access sources they've long relied on.
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April 14, 2025
FTC Joins DOJ In Targeting Anticompetitive Regulations
The Federal Trade Commission launched a public inquiry Monday to look into reducing regulations that are hindering competition, following a similar move by the U.S. Department of Justice last month.
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April 14, 2025
Green Group Urges Update On Gulf Oil Well Risks
The Center for Biological Diversity has urged a D.C. federal court to order government agencies to update their assessment of derelict offshore oil and gas facilities along the southern coast, saying the stalled decommissioning of aging infrastructure is creating a greater likelihood of an environmental disaster.
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April 14, 2025
Chemical Co. Owes $11M In Unpaid Pine Oil Bills, Suit Says
Arbor Renewables, a manufacturer of pine-based chemicals, was hit with a lawsuit Friday alleging that it owes over $11 million in unpaid invoices to a Georgia-based consumer packaging maker.
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April 14, 2025
Colorado Oil Co. Says Hefty Penalties Are Unlawful Taking
An ailing oil and gas company asked a federal judge Friday to block Colorado orders requiring it to halt some operations and pay $8 million in penalties, arguing that they amount to an unconstitutional taking of its property without compensation.
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April 14, 2025
NJ High Court Advances DuPont Appeal In $1B Pollution Suit
The New Jersey Supreme Court will allow Chemours and E.I. du Pont de Nemours to appeal a trial court's ruling that a small New Jersey town has standing to bring its $1 billion pollution suit, according to a recent order.
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April 14, 2025
1st Circ. Can't Hear Class Suit Coverage Row, Oil Co. Says
A heating oil company urged the First Circuit to toss an appeal its insurers filed following a ruling that they must continue defending the company and several executives in a class action over alleged damage caused by oil containing elevated levels of biodiesel, saying the court doesn't currently have jurisdiction.
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April 14, 2025
Four State Govs. Call On EPA To Increase Biofuel Targets
Governors of Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota urged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to boost the amount of biofuel blended into fuel supplies as a way to help meet the Trump administration's domestic energy goals and strengthen investment in agriculture and rural communities.
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April 11, 2025
Boeing Birth Defect Cases Paused Until Wash. Appeals Ruling
Lawsuits seeking to hold Boeing liable for birth defects sustained by children of the company's factory workers were put on hold, after a Washington state judge ruled that an appeals court must first decide if companies have a duty of care for the "not-yet-conceived offspring" of their employees.
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April 11, 2025
3M Fights 4th Circ. Bid To Undo Removal Of PFAS Suits
Lawsuits accusing 3M Inc. of "forever chemical" contamination of Maryland and South Carolina waterways should be kept in federal court, the company has argued, urging the Fourth Circuit to decline the states' request for full panel review.
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April 11, 2025
DOJ Torches Biden-Era Enviro Justice Deal With Alabama
The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday terminated a groundbreaking civil rights law-based environmental justice settlement intended to improve water infrastructure in a low-income Black community in Alabama, calling it another step in the Trump administration's effort to eliminate anti-discrimination initiatives.
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April 11, 2025
FTC Starts Process That May Nix Chevron, Exxon Deal Limits
The Federal Trade Commission took the first steps Friday toward potentially lifting bans on the CEOs of Hess and Pioneer Natural Resources serving on the boards of Chevron and Exxon, respectively, under agreements assailed by the FTC's Republican leadership who want to permit the Chevron-Hess and Exxon-Pioneer mergers without those restrictions.
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April 11, 2025
7th Circ. Asks For Ill. Justices' Input On Pollution Exclusion
A Seventh Circuit panel considering whether an insurer for Sterigenics and its former parent company could avoid paying $150 million in legal costs for defending the company from a torrent of pollution suits has asked the Illinois Supreme Court to weigh in on how to apply a pollution exclusion in the relevant policy.
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April 11, 2025
EV Charging Biz Sues Over Alleged Seattle Station IP Theft
An electric-vehicle charging network has launched a lawsuit in Seattle federal court accusing a number of Washington state residents of conspiring to rip equipment from its charging stations in order to resell it on the streets, while also lifting the company's trade secrets.
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April 11, 2025
Texas Justices Uphold City's Wastewater Release Permit
A Central Texas city can move forward with its treated wastewater discharge operations, the Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday, rejecting a challenge to an environmental permit that was based on an increase in dissolved oxygen in a nearby stream.
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April 11, 2025
Trump Grid Order Threatens To Roil Electricity Sector
President Donald Trump's directive to keep struggling power plants on the grid is an unusual use of the U.S. Department of Energy's authority to ensure power delivery during emergencies, and it could invite lawsuits while upending wholesale electricity markets.
Expert Analysis
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2024 Has Been A Momentous Year For ESG
Significant developments in the environmental, social and governance landscape this year include new legislation, evolving global frameworks, continued litigation and enforcement actions, and a U.S. Supreme Court decision that has already affected how lower courts have viewed some ESG challenges, say attorneys at Katten.
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Advancing Storage-Integrated Power Generation In Turkey
Recent proposals by energy regulators in Turkey have laid the groundwork for further development of electricity generation plants with integrated energy storage facilities — offering opportunities for project developers and investors, and a possible model for U.S. regulators, say attorneys at Norton Rose.
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Making The Pitch To Grow Your Company's Legal Team
In a compressed economy, convincing the C-suite to invest in additional legal talent can be a herculean task, but a convincing pitch — supported by metrics and cost analyses — may help in-house counsel justify the growth of their team, say Elizabeth Smith and Roger Garceau at Major Lindsey.
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The Story Of 2024's Biggest Bank Regs, And Their Fate In 2025
U.S. federal bank regulators were very active in 2024 with initiatives ranging from antitrust and capital to proposals regarding controlling shareholders and incentive-based compensation, but many regulations face an uncertain future under the new administration, say attorneys at Latham.
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Opinion
1 Year After Rule 702 Changes, Courts Have Made Progress
In the year since amendments to the Federal Rules of Evidence went into effect, many federal judges have applied the new expert witness standard correctly, excluding unreliable testimony from their courts — but now state courts need to update their own rules accordingly, says Lee Mickus at Evans Fears.
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An Underutilized Tool To Dismiss Meritless Claims In Texas
In Texas, special appearances provide a useful but often overlooked tool for out-of-state defendants to escape meritless claims early in litigation, thus limiting discovery and creating a pathway for immediate appellate review, say attorneys at Winston & Strawn.
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When US Privilege Law Applies To Docs Made Outside The US
As globalization manifests itself in disputes over foreign-created documents, a California federal court’s recent trademark decision illustrates nuances of both U.S. privilege frameworks and foreign evidentiary protections that attorneys must increasingly bear in mind, say attorneys at Hunton.
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Executive Orders That Could Affect Financial Services In 2025
The incoming Trump administration is likely to quickly revive or update a number of prior executive orders, and possibly issue new ones, that could affect financial services by emphasizing market discipline rather than regulatory initiatives to drive change in the industry, say attorneys at Davis Wright.
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Green Projects Face States' Foreign Land Ownership Limits
As states impose restrictions and disclosure requirements around foreign investment in agricultural land — in some cases piggybacking on existing federal rules — renewable energy developers and investors must pay close attention to how the rules vary, says Daniel Fanning at Husch Blackwell.
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What 2024 Trends In Marketing, Comms Hiring Mean For 2025
The state of hiring in legal industry marketing, business development and communications over the past 12 months was marked by a number of trends — from changes in the C-suite to lateral move challenges — providing clues for what’s to come in the year ahead, says Ben Curle at Ambition.
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How Attorneys Can Master The Art Of Eye Contact At Trial
As a growing body of research confirms that eye contact facilitates communication and influences others, attorneys should follow a few pointers to maximize the power of eye contact during voir dire, witness preparation, direct examination and cross-examination, says trial consultant Noelle Nelson.
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Series
Group Running Makes Me A Better Lawyer
The combination of physical fitness and community connection derived from running with a group of business leaders has, among other things, helped me to stay grounded, improve my communication skills, and develop a deeper empathy for clients and colleagues, says Jessica Shpall Rosen at Greenwald Doherty.
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Hawaii Climate Insurance Case Is Good News For Energy Cos.
The Hawaii Supreme Court's recent ruling in a dispute between an oil company and its insurers, holding that reckless conduct in the context of activities that can cause climate harms is covered by liability policies, will likely be viewed by energy companies as a positive development, say attorneys at Fenchurch Law.
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Cos. Must Brace For New PFAS Regulations And Litigation
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently proposed adding over 100 per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances to the Toxic Release Inventory — and with increasing scrutiny of PFAS from the states and the plaintiffs bar as well, companies should take steps to reduce risks in this area, say attorneys at Dechert.
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Opinion
6 Changes I Would Make If I Ran A Law School
Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner identifies several key issues plaguing law schools and discusses potential solutions, such as opting out of the rankings game and mandating courses in basic writing skills.