Energy

  • December 17, 2024

    Red States Can Back Feds In Dakota Access Pipeline Row

    A North Dakota federal judge said Tuesday that 13 Republican-led states can back the federal government in litigation brought by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe seeking to halt operations of the Dakota Access Pipeline. 

  • December 17, 2024

    Distributor Seeks OK Of $131M Venezuela Award

    A Hong Kong goods distributor has kicked off litigation in Delaware looking to enforce a $131 million arbitral award against a subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company, stating in its petition that it wants to target the country's interest in the oil giant Citgo.

  • December 17, 2024

    Insurer Can't Duck Coverage Of Fire Suit, Texas Jury Finds

    A Texas federal jury rejected an insurer's bid to escape covering a trucking company in an underlying suit over a fire at a saltwater disposal facility that killed one of the company's employees, finding that the incident was not caused by the excluded act of hydrofracking.

  • December 17, 2024

    DC Circ. Nixes Challenge To Union Vote At Transformer Co.

    An electrical transformer manufacturer can't overturn the National Labor Relations Board's certification of a union with claims that agency officials botched the representation vote, the D.C. Circuit ruled Tuesday, saying the company's allegations about the length of the voting period lack merit.

  • December 17, 2024

    Senate GOP Enviro Leader Questions EPA On Grant Funding

    The leading Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee said Tuesday she's worried about the "potential for misuse" of the $30 billion in funding being doled out by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

  • December 17, 2024

    Renewable Energy Investor Asks Court To OK €42M Award

    A Luxembourg-based renewable energy investment firm on Tuesday urged a District of Columbia federal judge to confirm a €41.8 million ($43.9 million) arbitration award over Spain's abandoned energy economic incentives after the D.C. Circuit recently said such awards can be enforced.

  • December 17, 2024

    Revised LNG Export Study Flags Gas Price And Climate Worries

    The Biden administration on Tuesday said that unconstrained U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas would increase both domestic energy prices and cumulative greenhouse gas emissions, and retained a pause on export project reviews that President-elect Donald Trump is expected to lift upon taking office.

  • December 17, 2024

    5th Circ. Tosses EPA Rule After Agency Loses Docs

    The Fifth Circuit on Tuesday granted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's unusual request that the court vacate a challenged 2016 rule that partially disapproved regional haze plans created by Texas and Oklahoma and imposed a federal plan.

  • December 17, 2024

    CFPB Finalizes Rule For PACE Loans

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday finalized a rule that applies standard mortgage protections to so-called Property Assessed Clean Energy loans, where homeowners pay for upgrades through property tax bills.

  • December 17, 2024

    Yukos Capital Opposes Stay In $5B Russia Award Suit

    The financing arm of Yukos Oil Co. urged a D.C. federal court on Monday not to pause its lawsuit looking to enforce a $5 billion arbitral award against Russia while litigation involving similar issues plays out, saying the Kremlin is needlessly dragging its feet.

  • December 17, 2024

    Oil Cos. Seek Coverage For Water Byproduct Pollution

    Two oil and gas companies accused their commercial general liability insurer and certain Lloyd's of London underwriters of denying coverage for a release of waste byproduct in bad faith, telling a New Mexico federal court the release further triggered state-supervised remediation efforts that imposed additional costs.

  • December 17, 2024

    Seattle, Solar Group Sue To Block Natural Gas Ballot Initiative

    The city of Seattle and solar industry and environmental groups have sued the state of Washington to preserve municipalities' ability to curb natural gas use in new buildings, arguing a voter-approved measure blocking that power had unrelated provisions that made it unconstitutional.

  • December 17, 2024

    Asset Manager Gets 2½ Years For Role In $1.2B PDVSA Scheme

    A Florida federal judge on Tuesday sentenced an asset manager who pled guilty to participating in a $1.2 billion scheme to embezzle money from Venezuela's state-owned oil company to 2½ years in prison.

  • December 17, 2024

    Senate Dem's Bill Would Mandate New FCC Outage Reports

    Networks that receive funding to help them rebound from climate-related disasters would need to file new reports of outages to the Federal Communications Commission under a Democratic bill filed in the U.S. Senate.

  • December 17, 2024

    PG&E Secures $15B Energy Dept. Loan To Upgrade Grid

    The U.S. Department of Energy said on Tuesday that it has conditionally committed to lending Pacific Gas & Electric Co. up to $15 billion for projects aimed at expanding hydropower generation and clean energy infrastructure in California.

  • December 17, 2024

    IRS Corrects Proposed Admin Requirements For Direct Pay

    The Internal Revenue Service issued a correction Tuesday to proposed regulations laying out administrative requirements for tax-exempt entities to elect out of their partnership status in order to take advantage of new rules enabling direct cash payment of clean energy tax credits.

  • December 17, 2024

    Possible 6th Circ. Picks Now That Biden's Nominee Is Done

    A district judge, state Supreme Court justice and a former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission member are among the contenders for a seat on the Sixth Circuit when the outgoing judge retires, a pending vacancy that had been a matter of contention between Tennessee's senators and the Biden administration.

  • December 16, 2024

    Circuit-By-Circuit Guide To 2024's Most Memorable Moments

    One judge said a litigant's position would cause "an effing nightmare," and another decried the legal community's silence amid "illegitimate aspersions." Public officials literally trashed one court's opinion, and fateful rulings dealt with controversial politicians, social media and decades of environmental policy. Those were just a few appellate highlights in 2024, a year teeming with memorable moments both substantive and sensational.

  • December 16, 2024

    Lye Indirect Buyers Can't Certify Price Fixing Class

    A New York federal judge denied a bid for class certification from indirect buyers of lye who allege manufacturers of the chemical colluded to inflate prices, saying Monday they didn't show common questions predominate for their proposed classes or that most members suffered an injury due to the alleged cartel.

  • December 16, 2024

    Ex-Ill. Rep. Says He Got ComEd, AT&T Work With Madigan's Help

    Former Illinois state Rep. Eddie Acevedo testified Monday that he obtained consulting work from utilities ComEd and AT&T with former House Speaker Michael Madigan's help, but pushed back on prosecutors' suggestion that he performed little to no work for the pay.

  • December 16, 2024

    Reed Smith, Eletson Battle Over Sanctions In Ch. 11

    The current and former owners of reorganized Greek shipping group Eletson Holdings clashed in New York bankruptcy court Monday over sanctions requested against Reed Smith LLP, the Chapter 11 counsel to the previous Eletson, and others in a dispute over implementing its confirmed bankruptcy plan that an attorney compared to the movie "Groundhog Day."

  • December 16, 2024

    High Court Faces Dueling Views Over EPA Rule Fights

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday was presented with dueling arguments over whether the bulk of judicial challenges to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency air pollution rules should remain in the D.C. Circuit or can be heard in other, regional circuit courts.

  • December 16, 2024

    DC Circ. Skeptical That EPA Moved Too Early On Particulates

    Judges on the D.C. Circuit seemed unlikely to buy arguments from industry groups and a coalition of Republican-led states challenging a February U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rule on particulate matter, grilling an attorney for the challengers on the agency's Clean Air Act authority during oral arguments Monday.

  • December 16, 2024

    Sempra Policies Too Old For $1.8B Leak Coverage, Court Told

    An insurer told a California federal judge to end Sempra Energy's bid to obtain coverage in connection with a nearly $1.8 billion settlement over the largest natural gas leak in U.S. history, claiming its policies expired before any alleged injuries occurred.

  • December 16, 2024

    US Lends $9.6B To Build EV Battery Plants In The South

    The U.S. Department of Energy has agreed to loan Ford Motor Co. and South Korean battery manufacturer SK On up to $9.63 billion for a joint venture that includes building electric vehicle battery plants in Tennessee and Kentucky, according to a Monday statement.

Expert Analysis

  • Criminal Enforcement Considerations For Gov't Contractors

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    Government contractors increasingly exposed to criminal liability risks should establish programs that enable detection and remediation of employee misconduct, consider voluntary disclosure, and be aware of the potentially disastrous consequences of failing to make a mandatory disclosure where the government concludes it was required, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • Opinion

    States Should Loosen Law Firm Ownership Restrictions

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    Despite growing buzz, normalized nonlawyer ownership of law firms is a distant prospect, so the legal community should focus first on liberalizing state restrictions on attorney and firm purchases of practices, which would bolster succession planning and improve access to justice, says Michael Di Gennaro at The Law Practice Exchange.

  • FERC Rule Is A Big Step Forward For Transmission Planning

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    The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's recent electric transmission system overhaul marks significant progress to ensure the grid can deliver electricity at reasonable prices, with a 20-year planning requirement and other criteria going further than prior attempted reforms, say Tom Millar and Gwendolyn Hicks at Winston & Strawn.

  • Series

    Solving Puzzles Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Tackling daily puzzles — like Wordle, KenKen and Connections — has bolstered my intellectual property litigation practice by helping me to exercise different mental skills, acknowledge minor but important details, and build and reinforce good habits, says Roy Wepner at Kaplan Breyer.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Environmental Law May Face Hurdles

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling overturning Chevron deference could prove to be as influential as the original 1984 decision, with far-reaching implications for U.S. environmental laws, including rendering recently promulgated regulations more vulnerable to challenges, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Texas Ethics Opinion Flags Hazards Of Unauthorized Practice

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    The Texas Professional Ethics Committee's recently issued proposed opinion finding that in-house counsel providing legal services to the company's clients constitutes the unauthorized practice of law is a valuable clarification given that a UPL violation — a misdemeanor in most states — carries high stakes, say Hilary Gerzhoy and Julienne Pasichow at HWG.

  • Electrifying Transportation With Public-Private Partnerships

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    Many clean energy goals remain public policy abstractions that face a challenging road to realization — but public-private partnership models could be a valuable tool to electrify the transportation sector, says Michael Blackwell at Husch Blackwell.

  • Navigating The New Rise Of Greenwashing Litigation

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    As greenwashing lawsuits continue to gain momentum with a shift in focus to carbon-neutrality claims, businesses must exercise caution and ensure transparency in their environmental marketing practices, taking cues from recent legal challenges in the airline industry, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • In Memoriam: The Modern Administrative State

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    On June 28, the modern administrative state, where courts deferred to agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes, died when the U.S. Supreme Court overruled its previous decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council — but it is survived by many cases decided under the Chevron framework, say Joseph Schaeffer and Jessica Deyoe at Babst Calland.

  • How High Court Approached Time Limit On Reg Challenges

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Corner Post v. Federal Reserve Board effectively gives new entities their own personal statute of limitations to challenge rules and regulations, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh's concurrence may portend the court's view that those entities do not need to be directly regulated, say attorneys at Snell & Wilmer.

  • First-Of-Its-Kind Chancery Ruling Will Aid SPAC Defendants

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    The Delaware Chancery Court's first full dismissal of claims challenging a special purpose acquisition company transaction under the entire fairness doctrine in the recent Hennessy Capital Acquisition Stockholder Litigation establishes useful precedent to abate the flood of SPAC litigation, say Lisa Bugni and Benjamin Lee at King & Spalding.

  • Expect The Unexpected: Contracts For Underground Projects

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    Recent challenges encountered by the Mountain Valley Pipeline project underscore the importance of drafting contracts for underground construction to account for unexpected site conditions, associated risks and compliance with applicable laws, say Jill Jaffe and Brenda Lin at Nossaman.

  • How To Clean Up Your Generative AI-Produced Legal Drafts

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    As law firms increasingly rely on generative artificial intelligence tools to produce legal text, attorneys should be on guard for the overuse of cohesive devices in initial drafts, and consider a few editing pointers to clean up AI’s repetitive and choppy outputs, says Ivy Grey at WordRake.

  • Series

    Boxing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Boxing has influenced my legal work by enabling me to confidently hone the skills I've learned from the sport, like the ability to remain calm under pressure, evaluate an opponent's weaknesses and recognize when to seize an important opportunity, says Kirsten Soto at Clyde & Co.

  • Opinion

    Industry Self-Regulation Will Shine Post-Chevron

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's Loper decision will shape the contours of industry self-regulation in the years to come, providing opportunities for this often-misunderstood practice, says Eric Reicin at BBB National Programs.

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