Energy

  • September 20, 2024

    US Chamber Warns Del. Justices On TC Energy Case Fallout

    The U.S. Chamber of Commerce warned Delaware's Supreme Court Friday of "detrimental and expensive consequences" from an unprecedented, $199 million damages ruling against TransCanada Corp. last year for aiding seller fiduciary breaches in its $13 billion acquisition of Columbia Pipeline Corp.

  • September 20, 2024

    House Passes GOP Push To Nix EPA Auto Emissions Regs

    The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives on Friday passed a resolution that would block implementation of the Biden administration's tighter greenhouse gas emissions standards for cars and light trucks, though the legislation is likely dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

  • September 20, 2024

    Insurers Say Ky. House Damage Wasn't From Mine Collapse

    Insurers told a Kentucky federal court to toss a couple's case seeking compensation for damage to their home because of coal mine subsidence, arguing the damage wasn't caused by a collapsing void underground.

  • September 20, 2024

    CFTC Issues Final Guidance On Carbon Credit Markets

    The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Friday put forth guidelines it says will help foster transparency and deter manipulation in the emerging market for voluntary carbon credits by, among other things, encouraging derivatives exchanges to assess the environmental benefits associated with the credits.

  • September 20, 2024

    Mexico Will Challenge $37M Deepsea Mining Award

    Mexico will look to annul the $37 million arbitral award issued to a U.S. deep ocean exploration company after its project to develop one of the world's largest seabed phosphate deposits was mothballed, saying the tribunal improperly overlooked its evidence citing environmental concerns.

  • September 20, 2024

    Chevron's Demise May Not Bring Deluge Courts Had Feared

    Though the death of Chevron deference has opened a door to attacking administrative decisions, the expected uptick in litigation probably won't threaten to clog federal courts, numerous administrative law experts told Law360.

  • September 20, 2024

    Womble Bond Hires New Head Of Int'l Disputes From Dechert

    Womble Bond Dickinson has hired a former Dechert LLP partner as the head of its international disputes practice, who will be based in the firm's Washington, D.C., office and will double as a partner in its business litigation practice group, Womble Bond recently announced.

  • September 20, 2024

    Charges On Spain's Airport Stake Lifted Amid Arbitration Fight

    An English court on Friday lifted charges over a Spanish public airport company's interest in a London airport as part of a U.S. renewable energy company's battle to enforce a multimillion-dollar arbitration award against Spain.

  • September 20, 2024

    DOE Picks 25 Battery Projects For $3B Of Awards

    The U.S. Department of Energy on Friday said it has selected 25 projects across 14 states for negotiations for $3 billion of federal funding aimed at boosting the domestic production and recycling of batteries and key materials.

  • September 20, 2024

    UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

    The past week in London has seen crypto exchange Binance face a new claim from the co-founder of SO Legal, a U.S. immersive art company take on a Bristol venue for copyright violations and Blake Morgan LLP hit with a pension schemes claim by The Trust for Welsh Archeology. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

  • September 20, 2024

    Steel Biz Investors Sue Atty Over 'Father-Son'-Like Conflict

    A Pennsylvania couple have filed a malpractice suit accusing a lawyer of helping a steel distribution company induce them into investing about $800,000 and defrauding them, saying the attorney didn't disclose his relationship with the company's owners and "father-son"-like bond with one of them.

  • September 19, 2024

    Chancery Fast-Tracks Suit Over Renewable Energy Co. Buyout

    Delaware's Court of Chancery on Thursday expedited a lawsuit accusing a Repsol SA subsidiary of breaching an agreement requiring it to buy out the remaining shares in a Chicago-based renewable energy venture the Repsol unit co-owns.

  • September 19, 2024

    Texas Judge Seeks More Info In $150M Ukrnafta Award Feud

    A Texas magistrate judge on Thursday ordered Ukraine's largest oil company to turn over bank statements as he grapples with a bid by U.S.-based Carpatsky Petroleum Corp. to bar the Ukrainian company from draining those accounts, part of Carpatsky's long-running effort to enforce a $150 million arbitral award.

  • September 19, 2024

    Florida Banker Denies Laundering Money For Father

    A Florida banker pled not guilty Thursday to federal charges connected to laundering money for his father, who was convicted for his role in a corruption scandal involving canceling fines for a defective hydroelectric dam in exchange for millions in bribes while he served as Ecuador's comptroller.

  • September 19, 2024

    Gold Mine Operator Agrees To Pay $3M In Water Pollution Row

    The operator of the controversial Buckhorn Mountain Gold Mine has agreed to pay more than $3.1 million and take a variety of steps to investigate and remediate water pollution, under a proposed consent decree filed in Washington federal court on Thursday.

  • September 19, 2024

    EPA Urges DC Circ. Not To Block Coal Ash Rule Implementation

    A Kentucky electric utility is "misleading" the D.C. Circuit about how clean former coal ash pits are once the material is removed, and should not be allowed to block implementation of a new coal ash rule, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday.

  • September 19, 2024

    Calif. Port's Approval Of Hydrogen Project Challenged

    Two conservation groups filed a California state court lawsuit challenging the Port of Stockton's review and approval of a hydrogen production and distribution facility, arguing it conducted an inadequate environmental review and failed to ensure project impacts are mitigated.

  • September 19, 2024

    FERC Must Heed DC Circ. 'Shift' On Gas Reviews, Chair Says

    Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Willie Phillips said Thursday that the D.C. Circuit wrongly wiped out the agency's approval of a Northeast pipeline expansion project, but acknowledged that recent court decisions will force FERC to rethink how it reviews gas infrastructure projects.

  • September 19, 2024

    Judge Blocks Manhattan Project Waste From Mich. Landfill

    A state judge barred a southeast Michigan landfill from accepting shipments of radiological material Wednesday, issuing a temporary restraining order days after surrounding communities sued over planned deliveries of contaminated soil and debris left over from the development of the first atomic bomb.

  • September 19, 2024

    Quinn Emanuel Challenges Oro Negro Execs' Discovery Bid

    Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP is pushing back against a bid for firm documents from its former client, Oro Negro Drilling Pte. Ltd., saying the company that provides oil services in Mexico and its subsidiaries are "weaponizing" the firm's party status to gain a tactical advantage in related legal battles.

  • September 19, 2024

    BakerHostetler Adds Ex-Baker Botts Accident Response Duo

    Months after hiring former Baker Botts attorney Greg Dillard to lead its catastrophic accident response team, BakerHostetler has announced the hire of two more attorneys from the firm as counsel in Washington, D.C., and Houston.

  • September 19, 2024

    Tax Or Fee, Utility Rates Beyond Review, Ga. Justices Hear

    A Georgia city told the state Supreme Court on Thursday that its use of utility fees to bolster city coffers was not an illegal tax, despite a sports bar owner's claims to the contrary, and that a trial court rightly said it could not decide the matter.

  • September 19, 2024

    3 Firms Lead Vistra's $3B Buy Of Leftover Stake In Nuclear Biz

    Retail electricity and power generation company Vistra Corp. has agreed to acquire the remaining 15% equity stake in its subsidiary Vistra Vision LLC, which owns nuclear generation facilities, from minority investors Nuveen Asset Management LLC and Avenue Capital Management II LP in a deal valued at more than $3 billion and built by three law firms.

  • September 18, 2024

    Waste Mgmt. Sued For $3.8M Over Renewable Energy Credits

    A Constellation Energy Corp. unit slapped Waste Management Inc. with a complaint in Texas federal court on Tuesday, saying the company has refused to cough up more than $3.8 million for renewable energy credits Constellation paid for but never received.

  • September 18, 2024

    Split 5th Circ. Upholds Oxy's $38M Win Over Wells Fargo Bank

    A split Fifth Circuit panel upheld a $38 million judgment against Wells Fargo in a published opinion Wednesday, affirming that the bank breached its trustee duties by failing to timely sell Occidental Petroleum Corp. stock and is judicially estopped from arguing that the trust agreement was not a contract.

Expert Analysis

  • A Midyear Forecast: Tailwinds Expected For Atty Hourly Rates

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    Hourly rates for partners, associates and support staff continued to rise in the first half of this year, and this growth shows no signs of slowing for the rest of 2024 and into next year, driven in part by the return of mergers and acquisitions and the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence, says Chuck Chandler at Valeo Partners.

  • Series

    After Chevron: 7 FERC Takeaways From Loper Bright

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    Following the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of the Chevron doctrine, it's likely that the majority of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's orders will not be affected, but the commission has nonetheless lost an important fallback argument and will have to approach rulemaking more cautiously, says Norman Bay at Willkie Farr.

  • California Adds A Novel Twist To State Suits Against Big Oil

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    California’s suit against Exxon Mobil Corp., one of several state suits that seek to hold oil and gas companies accountable for climate-related harms, is unique both in the magnitude of the alleged claims and its use of a consumer protection statute to seek disgorgement of industry profits, says Julia Stein at UCLA School of Law.

  • 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.

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