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Environmental
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June 03, 2024
Mich. Asks 6th Circ. To Keep Airport PFAS Suit In State Court
Michigan's Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy and the state attorney general are asking the Sixth Circuit to keep the department's suit against Gerald R. Ford International Airport Authority over so-called forever chemicals in state court, saying the Airport Authority is not entitled to removal as a "federal officer."
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June 03, 2024
Feds Oppose Fla.'s Plea For Rushed CWA Appeal
The federal government on Monday told the D.C. Circuit it needs more time to decide whether it is going to appeal a lower court's decision to strip Florida of the power to administer a Clean Water Act permitting program.
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June 03, 2024
Eversource 'Shamelessly' Touts Dangerous Fuel, Suit Says
Eversource Energy promotes natural gas as a safe, clean energy source when it knows otherwise and engages in "greenwashing" that minimizes its impact on the environment, according to a proposed class action filed in state court on behalf of Massachusetts residents serviced by the utility.
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June 03, 2024
Denver Oil Refinery Air Permit Is Valid, EPA Tells 10th Circ.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defended its refusal to object to the renewal of a Denver oil refinery's air pollution permit, telling the Tenth Circuit that the Center for Biological Diversity failed to show the permit would allow the refinery to emit harmful amounts of nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide.
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June 03, 2024
PPG Blames Enviro Groups For Pa. Site Cleanup Delay
PPG Industries told a Pennsylvania federal judge Monday that the company shouldn't be fined for delaying its cleanup of an industrial waste site outside Pittsburgh because it was ready to start work in the 1990s but was slowed by infeasible demands from state regulators and environmental groups.
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June 03, 2024
FERC Tells Justices Not To Review Rule Passed By Deadlock
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Friday urged the U.S. Supreme Court not to disturb a Third Circuit decision upholding an electricity market rule change that took effect despite a commissioner deadlock, arguing the lower court got it right and that any market upheaval concerns are unfounded.
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June 03, 2024
States Say Biden Admin's LNG Export Pause Is Actually A Ban
A coalition of Republican-led states is urging a Louisiana federal court not to toss its lawsuit challenging the Biden administration's pause on reviewing applications to export liquefied natural gas to countries without free trade agreements, saying the pause effectively amounts to a ban because no timeline is provided.
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June 03, 2024
3 Firms Rep As Waste Management Inks $7.2B Stericycle Buy
Waste Management Inc. has agreed to buy medical waste company Stericycle at an enterprise value of about $7.2 billion, inclusive of approximately $1.4 billion of debt, the companies said in a statement Monday.
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June 03, 2024
DC White Collar Atty Leaves Baker Botts To Launch Solo Firm
After a career that has so far spanned government service, BigLaw and academia, Washington, D.C.-based white collar attorney Steve Solow is setting up his own shop.
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June 01, 2024
Blockbuster Summer: 10 Big Issues Justices Still Must Decide
As the calendar flips over to June, the U.S. Supreme Court still has heaps of cases to decide on issues ranging from trademark registration rules to judicial deference and presidential immunity. Here, Law360 looks at 10 of the most important topics the court has yet to decide.
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May 31, 2024
Texas Justices Won't Take On City Insurance Coverage Fight
The Texas Supreme Court on Friday declined to review a trial court's decision rejecting a municipal insurance risk pool's attempt to evade the city of Hidalgo's lawsuit seeking to recover millions of dollars for damage sustained in Hurricane Hanna in July 2020.
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May 31, 2024
Monsanto PCB Plaintiffs Want $185M Wash. Win Restored
A group of public school teachers is urging the Washington State Supreme Court to review a state appellate court decision overturning their $185 million win in a PCB tort against Monsanto, contending the ruling stifles plaintiffs' rights in cases stemming from the same school site and other product liability litigation.
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May 31, 2024
'Alkaline Water' Blamed For Liver Failures In Latest Trial
Eight Las Vegas residents on Friday became the latest group to try claims against an "alkaline water" company whose manufacturing process, their lawyer told a jury, introduced a chemical that caused their livers to fail.
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May 31, 2024
States, Energy Organizations Urge Demise Of EPA Water Rule
Conservative-leaning states and energy industry groups have asked a Louisiana federal judge to strike down the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's rule broadening states' and tribes' power to veto projects like pipelines, export terminals and dams over water quality concerns.
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May 31, 2024
State Climate Superfund Laws Will Face Fossil Fuel Fightback
A first-of-its-kind law in Vermont will impose Superfund-like liability and cleanup tabs on fossil fuel companies for climate change-related damages, though legal experts predict the industry will fight such laws as fiercely as it's fought climate tort lawsuits brought by state and local governments.
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May 31, 2024
Utah Sues To Throttle Federal Glenn Canyon ATV Limits
The state of Utah is arguing that federal officials can't enforce a 2021 ban on ATVs and other off-road vehicles in sections of the Glenn Canyon National Recreational Area, in a federal lawsuit claiming immunity from rules that grew out of a 2005 lawsuit brought by environmental groups.
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May 31, 2024
4th Circ. Won't Revive NC Homeowners' Storm Coverage Suit
The Fourth Circuit refused on Friday to revive a suit brought by the owners of a North Carolina beach house accusing certain underwriters at Lloyd's London of stalling a $1 million payout over hurricane damage.
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May 31, 2024
Animal Rehab Center Says Subpar Care Suit Must Be Tossed
Noah's Ark Animal Rehabilitation Center and Sanctuary called on a Georgia federal judge to throw out an Ohio-based nonprofit's latest complaint alleging that the center failed to properly care for its wildlife, citing two substantially similar state court suits it previously filed and lost.
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May 31, 2024
Fuel Producers Should Apply ASAP For Tax Credit, IRS Says
Fuel producers hoping to start claiming the clean fuel production credit as soon as January should register with the Internal Revenue Service by July 15, the agency said Friday, warning that registration applications made after that date are less likely to go through in time.
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May 31, 2024
In Rarity, 1 Party's Judges Gain 100% Control Of Circuit Bench
At the First Circuit, the judges' robes are all black, but the judges are all blue. It's a new and unusual instance of one political party's judicial picks controlling each active seat on a federal appeals court, and the Democratic dominance could prove magnetic for ideologically charged litigation.
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May 30, 2024
Wash. Tribe Gets Partial Win Against Feds Over Wildfires
A Court of Federal Claims judge partly denied Thursday the U.S. government's bid to toss claims by a tribe in Washington state over massive fires that destroyed forests on reservation land, saying a money-mandating source of law entitles the tribes to compensation.
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May 30, 2024
3 Things To Watch In SF's High Court Water Standards Case
The U.S. Supreme Court has granted San Francisco's request that it review the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's decision to incorporate narrative pollution standards in a Clean Water Act permit, throwing into question the use of a common permitting feature.
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May 30, 2024
Okla. Tribes Say Bills Won't Deter Poultry Biz From Polluting
The Inter-Tribal Council of the Five Civilized Tribes says two bills working their way through the Oklahoma Legislature don't go far enough to deter the poultry industry from polluting and threaten to undo decades of progress toward improving water quality.
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May 30, 2024
USDA Should Redo $44M Software Order Again, GAO Says
The Government Accountability Office publicly released a decision on Thursday in support of a company's protest of a $44.2 million Department of Agriculture task order for software support for conservation-related programs, concluding the order was not properly issued.
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May 30, 2024
Ill. Made 'Big Concession' In 3M PFAS Suit, 7th Circ. Judge Says
A Seventh Circuit judge observed Thursday that the state of Illinois made a "big concession" in its suit accusing 3M of polluting local waters with toxic "forever chemicals" when the state said 3M could avoid liability if Illinois can't prove contamination came exclusively from a particular facility.
Expert Analysis
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New Eagle Take Permit Rule Should Help Wind Projects Soar
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.
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2 Issues For Venture-Backed Climate Tech Startups To Avoid
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.
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Spartan Arbitration Tactics Against Well-Funded Opponents
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.
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Takeaways From EPA's New Methane Emission Rules
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.
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3 Litigation Strategies To Combat 'Safetyism'
Amid the rise of safetyism — the idea that every person should be free from the risk of harm or discomfort — among jurors and even judges, defense counsel can mount several tactics from the very start of litigation to counteract these views and blunt the potential for jackpot damages, says Ann Marie Duffy at Hollingsworth.
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Risks Of Nonmutual Offensive Collateral Estoppel In MDLs
After the Supreme Court declined to review the Sixth Circuit's ruling in the E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. personal injury litigation, nonmutual offensive collateral estoppel could show up in more MDLs, and transform the loss of a single MDL bellwether trial into a de facto classwide decision that binds thousands of other MDL cases, say Chantale Fiebig and Luke Sullivan at Weil Gotshal.
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What Recent Study Shows About AI's Promise For Legal Tasks
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.
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5 Things Trial Attorneys Can Learn From Good Teachers
Jennifer Cuculich at IMS Legal Strategies recounts lessons she learned during her time as a math teacher that can help trial attorneys connect with jurors, from the importance of framing core issues to the incorporation of different learning styles.
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Legal Considerations For Circular Economy Strategies
As circular economy goals — generating revenue at multiple points in a product's life cycle — become nearly ubiquitous in corporate sustainability practices, companies should reassess existing strategies by focusing on government incentives, regulations, and reporting and disclosure requirements, say Rachel Saltzman and Erin Grisby at Hunton.
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SEC's Final Climate Disclosure Rules: What Cos. Must Know
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.
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Caremark 2.0 Lends Shareholders Agency Against Polluters
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.
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Preempting Bottled Water Microplastics Fraud Claims
Food products like bottled water are increasingly likely to be targets of consumer fraud complaints due to alleged microplastics contamination — but depending on the labeling or advertising at issue, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act can provide a powerful preemption defense, say Tariq Naeem and Brenda Sweet at Tucker Ellis.
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Wildfire Challenges For Utility Investors: Regs And Financing
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.
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Litigation Inspiration: A Source Of Untapped Fulfillment
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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Wildfire Challenges For Utility Investors: Liability Theories
The greater frequency and scale of wildfires in the last several years have created operational and fiscal challenges for electric utility companies, including new theories of liability and unique operational and risk management considerations — all of which must be carefully considered by utility investors, say David Botter and Lisa Schweitzer at Cleary.