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November 19, 2024
Trump DOT Pick Puts Highway, Road Rebuilds Back In Focus
President-elect Donald Trump's selection of former Wisconsin congressman Sean Duffy to serve as his secretary of transportation would send a savvy communicator to liaise with Capitol Hill and refocus the federal government's infrastructure investment priorities more on highways, roads and bridges and less on renewables and clean-energy initiatives, experts say.
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November 19, 2024
Oil Refiner Not Obligated To Arbitrate Oil Sands Project Claims
A Canadian appeals court has determined that an Alberta oil refiner is not obligated to arbitrate its claims against subcontractors in a dispute that arose from allegedly defective steam generator modules intended for a steam-assisted gravity drainage oil sands project northeast of Fort McMurray, Alberta.
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November 19, 2024
Neb. AG Expands Electric Trucks Fight To Volvo, Daimler
However a federal court challenge to California's phaseout of gasoline and diesel trucks plays out, Nebraska's attorney general wants to make sure that Volvo, Daimler and other semitruck giants don't eliminate traditional fossil fuel-powered vehicles, filing a Nebraska state court antitrust suit Tuesday describing phaseout commitments as anticompetitive collusion.
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November 19, 2024
Feds Defend BLM Authority In States' Methane Rule Challenge
The Biden administration has urged a North Dakota federal court to grant it a summary judgment win in five states' lawsuit challenging a new rule aimed at cracking down on natural gas waste, defending the rule's creation as being well within the Bureau of Land Management's statutory authority.
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November 19, 2024
After Biden-Era Rebuild, EPA Staff Brace For Trump Term 2
Many U.S. Environmental Protection Agency employees are gearing up for President-elect Donald Trump's second term with a promise to fight any efforts to dramatically reduce staffing levels and pointing to new union contract protections to bolster claims that they're prepared.
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November 19, 2024
LA Waterkeeper Sues Union Pacific Over Pollution Controls
The Los Angeles Waterkeeper slapped Union Pacific Railroad Co. with a complaint in California federal court, alleging the company's failure to implement pollution controls at four industrial facilities has led to hazardous discharges of heavy metals and oils into the San Jose Creek, San Gabriel River and other bodies of water.
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November 19, 2024
Utah Counties, Feds Ask Justices To Restore Rail Oil Project
Utah counties and the federal government fired back at a Colorado county's attempt to affirm a D.C. Circuit ruling that overturned federal approval of a rail project intended to haul crude oil out of Utah's Uinta Basin, telling the U.S. Supreme Court in separate briefs the county's understanding of the National Environmental Policy Act is incorrect.
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November 19, 2024
Unjust PJM Power Auction Rules Must Be Redone, FERC Told
State consumer advocates want the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to rewrite the electricity capacity auction rules for the nation's largest regional grid operator, saying PJM Interconnection's existing rules unjustly saddle consumers with billions of dollars of extra costs.
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November 19, 2024
Trump Names Wall St. Exec For Chief Commerce Role
Donald Trump will nominate longtime Wall Street financier Howard Lutnick to head up the U.S. Department of Commerce, the president-elect announced Tuesday, selecting a top member of his transition team to oversee a vast bureaucracy that grapples with key trade policies.
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November 19, 2024
Treasury Finalizes Partnership Tax Credit 'Direct Pay' Regs
The U.S. Treasury Department finalized regulations Tuesday to make it easier for tax-exempt entities that co-own development projects to qualify for a direct cash payment of clean energy tax credits by electing out of their partnership tax status.
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November 18, 2024
DC Circ. Doubts It Can Confirm Foreign Enforcement Order
The D.C. Circuit did not seem at all convinced Monday morning that two Mauritian mining companies could lean on a treaty governing arbitral awards to enforce a foreign court judgment confirming a $50 million arbitration award against Zimbabwe stemming from a soured joint mining venture.
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November 18, 2024
Trump Taps Fox Host Sean Duffy For Transportation Secretary
President-elect Donald Trump announced Monday he will nominate former Wisconsin congressman and Fox Business host Sean Duffy to serve as head of the U.S. Department of Transportation.
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November 18, 2024
Worker Urges High Court To Fix Rift In Axed Age Bias Suit
A former Halliburton employee asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to overturn a Tenth Circuit order shuttering his age bias suit after finding he couldn't challenge an arbitration award because the case was voluntarily dismissed, arguing the ruling creates a "twilight zone" in the law.
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November 18, 2024
Trump DOE Pick Signals Funding Flux For Clean Energy Cos.
President-elect Donald Trump tapping oilfield services executive Chris Wright as U.S. energy secretary underscores the frostier federal reception that awaits clean energy companies, but experts say the industry shouldn't cede the playing field to fossil fuels just yet.
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November 18, 2024
Chancery Consolidates 2 Musk, Derivative Damage Suits
Delaware's chancellor on Monday combined two class suits that separately targeted Elon Musk's massive sales of Tesla Inc. stock and alleged diversions of Tesla talent to Musk's spun-off artificial intelligence venture, while ordering coordination with a suit seeking damages arising from alleged insider trading in late 2022.
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November 18, 2024
Venezuela Slams Withholding Of Stock Docs In Citgo Sale
Venezuela has urged a Delaware federal judge to order a special master overseeing the auction of oil giant Citgo's parent company to give the country a copy of the now-executed and unredacted stock purchase agreement he made with another party.
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November 18, 2024
EPA Has No Choice But To Rethink Smog Rule, DC Circ. Told
U.S. Steel Corp. told the D.C. Circuit that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was obligated to reconsider its so-called "good neighbor" smog emissions rule after it was partially invalidated by a court, arguing the agency's own brief confirms that its refusal to do so was improper.
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November 18, 2024
8th Circ. Set For Arguments In Oil Lease Termination Row
The Eighth Circuit set arguments on Friday for Dec. 18 in an appeal over a North Dakota federal judge's decision to throw out Denver-based Prima Exploration Inc.'s lawsuit alleging the Bureau of Indian Affairs schemed with two rival companies to end its lease on land within the Fort Berthold Reservation.
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November 18, 2024
Brazil's Unigel Seeks Ch. 15 Nod For $810M Restructuring
Several units of Brazilian petrochemical producer Unigel Group have urged a New York bankruptcy court to recognize their overseas bankruptcy plans to address roughly $810 million of debt, saying factors including the war in Ukraine and inflation have hampered the companies' liquidity.
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November 18, 2024
Former GE Exec Guilty Of Faking Docs In $1.1B Power Deal
A Manhattan federal jury on Monday convicted a former GE Power executive of using forged documents, then taking a $5 million kickback, in what federal prosecutors called a corrupt effort to close a $1.1 billion energy deal in Angola.
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November 18, 2024
Ex-Utility Co. Worker Says OT Violations Were 'No Secret'
A former employee of North Carolina-based utility services company Stake Center Locating LLC asked an Illinois federal judge to certify his proposed class of workers that were allegedly not paid proper overtime, stating that "it's no secret SCL uniformly requires its locators to work off the clock."
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November 18, 2024
Pa. AG-Elect Likely To Target AI, Robocalls And Opioids
Pennsylvania Attorney General-elect Dave Sunday is likely to focus on cracking down on artificial-intelligence-related scams that prey on vulnerable populations, unwanted robocalls, and opioid makers, while being less inclined to hammer down on energy and fossil fuel companies, experts said.
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November 15, 2024
DC Circ.'s White House NEPA Upheaval Sends Shockwaves
The D.C. Circuit's recent decision declaring the White House Council on Environmental Quality lacks the authority to issue legally binding regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act shocked environmental attorneys and has the potential to ignite federal agency chaos, experts say.
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November 15, 2024
Ex-GE Exec's Connection To Forged Docs Is Clear, Feds Say
Prosecutors told a New York federal jury Friday that trial evidence clearly proves a former GE executive knowingly used forged documents to secure a $1.1 billion gas turbine deal in Angola and demanded millions of dollars for his troubles.
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November 15, 2024
Judge Doubts Wildfire Trial Plan Would Hurt Some Plaintiffs
A Colorado state judge was skeptical Friday that a single liability trial for the thousands of plaintiffs suing Xcel Energy over a 2021 wildfire would deprive some people of a fair day in court, pressing lawyers for individual plaintiffs to explain why his plan would infringe on due process.
Expert Analysis
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6th Circ. Preemption Ruling Adds Uncertainty For Car Cos.
Automakers and their suppliers need uniformity under the law to create sufficient scale and viable markets — but the Sixth Circuit's recent decision in Fenner v. General Motors creates more uncertainty around the question of when state law consumer claims related to violations of federal vehicle emissions and fuel economy standards are preempted, say attorneys at Sidley.
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State Of The States' AI Legal Ethics Landscape
Over the past year, several state bar associations, as well as the American Bar Association, have released guidance on the ethical use of artificial intelligence in legal practice, all of which share overarching themes and some nuanced differences, say Eric Pacifici and Kevin Henderson at SMB Law Group.
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Review Shipping Terms In Light Of These 3 Global Challenges
Given tensions in the Middle East, labor unrest at U.S. ports and the ongoing consequences of climate change, parties involved in maritime shipping must understand the relevant contract provisions and laws that may be implicated during supply chain disruptions in order to mitigate risks, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.
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Cos. Face Increasing Risk From Environmental Citizen Suits
Environmental citizen suits stepping in to fill the regulatory vacuum concerning consumer goods waste may soon become more common, and the evolving procedural landscape and changes to environmental law may contribute to companies' increased exposure, say J. Michael Showalter and Bradley Rochlen at ArentFox Schiff.
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8 Childhood Lessons That Can Help You Be A Better Attorney
A new school year is underway, marking a fitting time for attorneys to reflect on some fundamental life lessons from early childhood that offer a framework for problems that no legal textbook can solve, say Chris Gismondi and Chris Campbell at DLA Piper.
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Navigating Complex Regulatory Terrain Amid State AG Races
This year's 10 attorney general elections could usher in a wave of new enforcement priorities and regulatory uncertainty, but companies can stay ahead of the shifts by building strong relationships with AG offices, participating in industry coalitions and more, say Ketan Bhirud and Dustin McDaniel at Cozen O’Connor.
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How The 2025 Tax Policy Debate Will Affect The Energy Sector
Regardless of the outcome of the upcoming U.S. election, 2025 will bring a major tax policy debate that could affect the energy sector more than any other part of the economy — so stakeholders who could be affected should be engaging now to make sure they understand the stakes, say attorneys at Mayer Brown.
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3rd Circ. Hertz Ruling Highlights Flawed Bankruptcy Theory
The Third Circuit, in its recent Hertz bankruptcy decision, became the latest appeals court to hold that noteholders were entitled to interest before shareholders under the absolute priority rule, but risked going astray by invoking the flawed theory of code impairment, say Matthew McGill and David Casazza at Gibson Dunn.
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Opinion
This Election, We Need To Talk About Court Process
In recent decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has markedly transformed judicial processes — from summary judgment standards to notice pleadings — which has, in turn, affected individuals’ substantive rights, and we need to consider how the upcoming presidential election may continue this pattern, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
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Int'l Agreements Are Key For Safe Nuclear Waste Disposal
By replacing fossil fuels, nuclear energy has the potential to offer a major contribution to the global fight against climate change — but ensuring that nuclear power is safe and sustainable will require binding, multinational agreements for safe nuclear waste disposal, say Ryan Schermerhorn and Christopher Zahn at Marshall Gerstein.
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Series
Playing Diplomacy Makes Us Better Lawyers
Similar to the practice of law, the rules of Diplomacy — a strategic board game set in pre-World War I Europe — are neither concise nor without ambiguity, and weekly gameplay with our colleagues has revealed the game's practical applications to our work as attorneys, say Jason Osborn and Ben Bevilacqua at Winston & Strawn.
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Applying High Court's Domestic Corruption Rulings To FCPA
After the U.S. Supreme Court narrowed the domestic corruption statutes in three decisions over the past year and a half, it’s worth evaluating whether these rulings may have an impact on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement, and if attorneys can use the court’s reasoning in international bribery cases, says James Koukios at MoFo.
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How Multifamily Property Owners Can Plan For The EV Future
As the electric vehicle market expands, and federal and state incentives and mandates intended to promote EV use come into effect, owners and operators of multifamily residential properties should be prepared to meet the growing demand for onsite EV charging infrastructure, say Sydney Tucker and Andreas Wokutch at Frost Brown.
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Conn. Court Split May Lead To Vertical Forum Shopping
As shown by a recent ruling in State v. Exxon Mobil, Connecticut state and federal courts are split on personal jurisdiction, and until the Connecticut Supreme Court steps in, parties may be incentivized to forum shop, causing foreign entities to endure costly litigation and uncertain liability, says Matthew Gibbons at Shipman & Goodwin.
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Mental Health First Aid: A Brief Primer For Attorneys
Amid a growing body of research finding that attorneys face higher rates of mental illness than the general population, firms should consider setting up mental health first aid training programs to help lawyers assess mental health challenges in their colleagues and intervene with compassion, say psychologists Shawn Healy and Tracey Meyers.