Energy

  • June 27, 2024

    Feds Back Debevoise Bid To Avoid Cognizant Trial Testimony

    The U.S. Department of Justice would like a New Jersey federal court to throw out a subpoena compelling trial testimony from a Debevoise & Plimpton LLP partner regarding an investigation into an alleged bribe the government believes two former Cognizant Technology Solutions executives supplied to an Indian company.

  • June 27, 2024

    Susan Sarandon Can Get Home Contractor's Bank Records

    A Massachusetts credit union must give Hollywood star Susan Sarandon some of the personal financial records of a contractor who she says failed to properly oversee construction of her $2 million sustainable home in Vermont, a federal magistrate judge ruled Wednesday.

  • June 27, 2024

    Kirkland, V&E Build $2.55B Sale Of Uinta Basin Assets

    SM Energy Company, advised by Kirkland & Ellis LLP, on Thursday unveiled plans to acquire the Uinta Basin oil and gas assets from private equity-backed XCL Resources LLC, led by Vinson & Elkins LLP, for an unadjusted purchase price of $2.55 billion, then sell an undivided 20% of those assets to Kirkland-led Northern Oil and Gas for $510 million.

  • June 27, 2024

    Supreme Court Freezes EPA's 'Good Neighbor' Rule

    The U.S. Supreme Court stayed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's plan to reduce cross-state pollution Thursday, finding several states and industry groups challenging it in court will likely prevail on the merits.

  • June 26, 2024

    Conn. Trader's Brother Cops Plea In $30M Brazilian Oil Plot

    A Connecticut man has pled guilty to helping to bribe officials at Brazil's state-owned oil company, PetrĂłleo Brasileiro SA, also known as Petrobras, allegedly to help his commodities trader brother earn more than $30 million in ill-gotten profits from deals with the oil giant, according to federal court documents.

  • June 26, 2024

    Online Comic Platform Leads 2 IPOs Raising $390M Total

    Online comic platform Webtoon Entertainment Inc. and Australian natural gas producer Tamboran Resources Corp. on Wednesday priced initial public offerings, raising a combined $390 million under the guidance of four law firms.

  • June 26, 2024

    Talc Co. Barretts' Creditors Push To Dismiss Ch. 11 Case

    Unsecured creditors of Barretts Minerals have urged a Texas bankruptcy judge to dismiss its bankruptcy following the debtor's sale of its talc business, arguing that Barretts remains in bankruptcy only to get its fully solvent parent company out of its talc liability.

  • June 26, 2024

    States Say Revised EPA Water Rule Worse Than Original

    Two dozen states are seeking a quick win against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and several Native American tribes in their suit challenging a revised rule defining the Clean Water Act's reach, saying it doesn't solve many problems found in the original rule.

  • June 26, 2024

    Demolition Worker's Family Sues FirstEnergy Over Fatal Fall

    The family of a Michigan man who died during the demolition of a former coal-fired power plant in Southwestern Pennsylvania has filed a lawsuit in Pennsylvania state court against the plant's operators, claiming that better plans, inspections and safety measures could have prevented his fatal fall in 2022.

  • June 26, 2024

    Tesla Says Musk's Pay OK In Texas Affects Del. Class Fee Bid

    Tesla Inc. has doubled down on arguments that stockholder ratification of Elon Musk's mammoth compensation plan in Texas should sideline a Delaware Court of Chancery hearing on a potential multibillion-dollar class attorney fee tied to the court's earlier voiding of the same pay package.

  • June 26, 2024

    EDF Renewables Units Dodging Biogas Judgment, Suit Says

    A Colorado composting company claims a biogas plant venture has been stripping itself of assets in order to evade a judgment, according to a Colorado federal complaint accusing the biogas company and related enterprises of fraudulent transfers.

  • June 26, 2024

    Jury Says Colo. Gas Co. Owes Trader $3.3M For Texas Deals

    A Colorado state jury on Wednesday found that a gas marketing company breached an employment agreement and violated the Colorado Wage Claim Act when it failed to pay a trading director a $3.3 million bonus from natural gas trades made during a historic 2021 winter storm.

  • June 26, 2024

    NJ Cos. Can't Toss Contamination Claim In Green Groups' Suit

    A New Jersey federal judge won't let NL Industries Inc. and a subsidiary escape claims by two environmental groups under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, saying it's undisputed that the companies are considered persons who handled hazardous waste.

  • June 26, 2024

    Energy Cos. Trash Toshiba Depo Tactics Over $500M Upgrade

    Michigan's largest energy companies told a federal judge that a Toshiba attorney berated and tried to provoke their witness during a deposition in their case alleging Toshiba botched a $500 million plant upgrade, urging the judge to reject Toshiba's sanctions request for the witness's supposed intransigence. 

  • June 26, 2024

    Alaska Natives Call EPA Pebble Mine Veto Unconstitutional

    Two Alaska Native American groups are asking a federal court to strip the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of its power to block projects — like a controversial mine in the state — under the Clean Water Act.

  • June 26, 2024

    Investor Appeals Chancery Toss Of $2.4B SPAC Deal Suit

    A stockholder of the blank-check company that took electric vehicle company Canoo Holdings Ltd. public in March 2021 has appealed to the Delaware Supreme Court the dismissal of his proposed Delaware Court of Chancery class action challenging the $2.4 billion deal.

  • June 26, 2024

    Calif. AG Defends Chemical Org's Subpoena In Pollution Probe

    California Attorney General Rob Bonta is urging a D.C. federal judge to reject a bid from the American Chemistry Council that would block his office from enforcing a subpoena on the organization as part of an investigation into fossil fuel and petrochemical industries' role in global plastics pollution.

  • June 26, 2024

    House GOP Gears Up For The End Of Chevron Deference

    A new memo outlines how House Republicans are gearing up for the U.S. Supreme Court to potentially overturn the decades-old precedent that courts defer to agencies' interpretations of ambiguous statutes, as an opportunity to roll back the Biden administration's policies and reclaim Congress' power.

  • June 25, 2024

    Gas Co. Says Trader Flouted Credit Cap For $37M Storm Trades

    A Colorado gas marketing company Tuesday urged a jury to find that an ex-trader ignored a credit policy when he helped make $37 million worth of natural gas trades during a historic 2021 winter storm, arguing that none of his testifying co-workers backed up his story.

  • June 25, 2024

    Bulk Of Colo. Climate Case Against Oil Giants Beats Dismissal

    A Colorado state judge has paved the way for a county's lawsuit against major oil and gas companies that aims to hold them liable for damages caused by climate change, rejecting bids to toss claims for public and private nuisance, conspiracy and unjust enrichment.

  • June 25, 2024

    SEC Accuses Ex-CEOs Of Duping Market In $138M Offering

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday reached a $1 million deal with a company allegedly involved in a market manipulation scheme and also brought claims against the two former CEOs who allegedly led the scheme, which fraudulently raised $137.5 million from investors, according to the regulator.

  • June 25, 2024

    Norfolk Southern Torched In NTSB Final Derailment Findings

    Norfolk Southern used "reprehensible" tactics to interfere with the investigation into last year's derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, and pushed for an "unnecessary" controlled vent and burn of highly flammable vinyl chloride during the accident's chaotic aftermath, the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday.

  • June 25, 2024

    GOP Lawmakers Urge 8th Circ. To Quash SEC's Climate Rule

    A group of 35 Republican lawmakers on Tuesday moved to weigh in on the consolidated challenge to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recently adopted climate disclosure rule, arguing that the Eighth Circuit should vacate the measure due to a lack of clear congressional authorization.

  • June 25, 2024

    Split DC Circ. Backs Bush-Era Mining Deregulation

    A divided D.C. Circuit panel on Tuesday upheld a Bush-era mining regulation that removed limits on how much land near a mining site can be used for secondary operations like waste disposal, ruling against environmental groups that accused regulators of illegally walking back a more restrictive interpretation of federal mining law.

  • June 25, 2024

    Ga. County Wants Battery Fire Suit Sent Back To State Court

    A Georgia county that sued an electric vehicle battery manufacturer for allegedly dumping hundreds of batteries that led to a massive fire at a local recycling plant asked a federal judge Monday to send the case back to state court.

Expert Analysis

  • Document Retention Best Practices To Lower Litigation Risks

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    As new technologies emerge and terabytes of data can be within the purview of a single discovery request, businesses small and large should take four document management steps to effectively minimize risks of litigation and discovery sanctions long before litigation ensues, says Kimbrilee Weber at Norris McLaughlin.

  • Series

    Riding My Peloton Bike Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Using the Peloton platform for cycling, running, rowing and more taught me that fostering a mind-body connection will not only benefit you physically and emotionally, but also inspire stamina, focus, discipline and empathy in your legal career, says Christopher Ward at Polsinelli.

  • The Challenges SEC's Climate Disclosure Rule May Face

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    Attorneys at Debevoise examine potential legal challenges to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's new climate-related disclosure rule — against which nine suits have already been filed — including arguments under the Administrative Procedure Act, the major questions doctrine, the First Amendment and the nondelegation doctrine.

  • New Eagle Take Permit Rule Should Help Wind Projects Soar

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    The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's recently issued final rule revising the eagle take permit process should help wind energy developers obtain incidental take permits through a more transparent and expedited process, and mitigate the risk of improper take penalties faced by wind projects, says Jon Micah Goeller at Husch Blackwell.

  • 2 Issues For Venture-Backed Climate Tech Startups To Avoid

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    As climate tech startups become more common, poor equity dilution management and stacked seed financing are two common pitfalls that apply more acutely to climate tech startups than to the broader venture-backed startup space, say attorneys at Goodwin.

  • Spartan Arbitration Tactics Against Well-Funded Opponents

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    Like the ancient Spartans who held off a numerically superior Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae, trial attorneys and clients faced with arbitration against an opponent with a bigger war chest can take a strategic approach to create a pass to victory, say Kostas Katsiris and Benjamin Argyle at Venable.

  • What 2 Years Of Ukraine-Russia Conflict Can Teach Cos.

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    A few key legal lessons for the global business community since Russia's invasion of Ukraine could help protect global commerce in times of future conflict, including how to respond to disparate trade restrictions and sanctions, navigate war-related contract disputes, and protect against heightened cybersecurity risks, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Takeaways From EPA's New Methane Emission Rules

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    Attorneys at V&E examine two new Clean Air Act rules for the oil and gas industry, explaining how they expand methane and volatile organic compound emission reduction requirements and amplify U.S. Environmental Protection Agency enforcement risks.

  • In Int'l Arbitration Agreements, Be Clear About Governing Law

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    A trilogy of recent cases in the English High Court and Court of Appeal highlight the importance of parties agreeing to explicit choice of law language at the outset of an arbitration agreement in order to avoid costly legal skirmishes down the road, say lawyers at Faegre Drinker.

  • What Recent Study Shows About AI's Promise For Legal Tasks

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    Amid both skepticism and excitement about the promise of generative artificial intelligence in legal contexts, the first randomized controlled trial studying its impact on basic lawyering tasks shows mixed but promising results, and underscores the need for attorneys to proactively engage with AI, says Daniel Schwarcz at University of Minnesota Law School.

  • FERC's Updated Settlement Policy Comes With Risks For Cos.

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    The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's newly streamlined enforcement settlement policy may increase investigation subjects' regulatory risk, so they should consider measures to protect themselves, such as periodically assessing compliance programs and mitigating any weaknesses, say attorneys at Willkie.

  • SEC's Final Climate Disclosure Rules: What Cos. Must Know

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    While the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's scaled-back final rules requiring public companies to disclose certain climate-related information still face challenges in court, companies should begin preparing now to comply with the rules, say Celia Soehner and Erin Martin at Morgan Lewis.

  • Caremark 2.0 Lends Shareholders Agency Against Polluters

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    The Caremark doctrine has been liberalized by recent Delaware court decisions into what some have termed a 2.0 version, making derivative cases against corporations far more plausible and invigorating oversight duty on environmental risks like toxic spills and air pollution, say Joshua Margolin and Sean Goldman-Hunt at Selendy Gay.

  • Wildfire Challenges For Utility Investors: Regs And Financing

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    For investors in public utilities, wildfire liability considerations include not only regulatory complexities, but also bankruptcy claims resolution, financing judgments and settlements, and how to leverage organizational structures to maximize investment protections, say David Botter and Lisa Schweitzer at Cleary.

  • Litigation Inspiration: A Source Of Untapped Fulfillment

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    As increasing numbers of attorneys struggle with stress and mental health issues, business litigators can find protection against burnout by remembering their important role in society — because fulfillment in one’s work isn’t just reserved for public interest lawyers, say Bennett Rawicki and Peter Bigelow at Hilgers Graben.

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