Environmental

  • July 08, 2024

    Gas Cos. To Pay $1M For Emissions Leaks At Colo. Plant

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state of Colorado have reached a settlement with a Colorado natural gas plant to resolve years of emissions leaks and regulatory violations that resulted in excess air pollution, according to a consent decree filed in federal court Monday.

  • July 08, 2024

    Tire Cos. Say Fishing Groups' Claims Fall Flat In ESA Row

    Tire companies are pushing a California federal court to toss an Endangered Species Act suit over a rubber additive that harms salmon, saying the case by fishing groups wrongly seeks to transform the ESA into a product regulatory statute that steps outside the act's congressional intent.

  • July 08, 2024

    3rd Circ. Backs Pa. In Transco's Pipeline Permit Review Fight

    The Third Circuit on Monday backed the Pennsylvania state environmental board's authority to review pipeline upgrade permits secured by Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co., rejecting the company's assertion that under the federal Natural Gas Act a federal court is the only forum to dispute the issuance of the permits.

  • July 08, 2024

    Biotech Co. Alleges Arbitrator Conflict In Patent Award Fight

    Pennsylvania-based biotechnology company Renmatix Inc. is urging the Delaware Court of Chancery to nix an arbitral award favoring Finnish company UPM-Kymmene Corp. in a long-running patent dispute, pointing to an allegedly undisclosed conflict of interest involving the Finnish company's counsel at DLA Piper.

  • July 08, 2024

    Maple Leaf Must Go The Way Of Chevron, Solar Cos. Say

    Last month's U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning 40 years of judicial deference to federal agencies' read of statutes puts the Federal Circuit's own brand of executive branch acquiescence squarely on the chopping block, a solar industry group said Monday.

  • July 08, 2024

    FDIC Downgrades Green-Focused Bank On CRA Exam

    The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has dinged Forbright Bank, a sustainability minded bank started by former Democratic presidential candidate John Delaney, over an allegedly "illegal credit practice" tied to a since-discontinued third-party partnership, lowering its latest community lending exam grade.

  • July 08, 2024

    Mining Co. Looks To Annul Romania's Arbitration Fees

    Canadian mining company Gabriel Resources Ltd., which is facing a major cash crunch after losing its $4.4 billion arbitration against Romania, said Monday it has filed an application requesting the annulment of a tribunal's costs award to the country.

  • July 08, 2024

    Ga. County Won't 'Sit On Its Hindquarters' In Battery Fire Fight

    A Georgia county suing a battery manufacturer for a massive fire allegedly sparked by the illegal dumping of lithium-ion cells urged a Georgia federal judge Friday to spike the company's "absurd" bid to dismiss the suit, calling the effort "premature and meritless."

  • July 08, 2024

    BLM Faces Challenges To Alaska Oil Reserve Protections

    The state of Alaska and a nonprofit group are seeking to vacate a federal rule ensuring maximum environmental protections for more than 13.1 million acres in the state's National Petroleum Reserve and banning new oil and gas leasing on another 10.6 million acres, arguing the new law turns the land into a "de facto" wilderness.

  • July 08, 2024

    Kirkland-Led Devon To Buy Grayson's Williston Biz For $5B

    Devon Energy announced Monday that the Oklahoma-based public company has cut a $5 billion cash-and-stock deal to acquire private equity-backed Grayson Mill Energy's Williston Basin oil and gas business in a transaction guided by Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Vinson & Elkins LLP.

  • July 08, 2024

    Landowners Defend Wyo. Antitrust Claims Against Anadarko

    Wyoming landowners accusing an Occidental Petroleum Corp. unit of antitrust behavior are urging a federal judge to reject its bid for a win on their state law claims as the case heads toward a trial.

  • July 05, 2024

    Judge Says Michigan Not Immune From Enbridge's Line 5 Suit

    A federal judge ruled on Friday that Michigan state officials can't quash a lawsuit from Enbridge Energy LP aimed at ending their efforts to shut down a U.S.-Canada pipeline that traverses the Great Lakes State.

  • July 05, 2024

    11th Circ. Won't Touch $9.7M College Hurricane Coverage Win

    The Eleventh Circuit ruled Friday that a district court unlawfully certified a partial judgment in favor of The Baptist College of Florida for review in a $13 million insurance coverage dispute for hurricane damage costs.

  • July 05, 2024

    How Reshaped Circuit Courts Are Faring At The High Court

    Seminal rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court's latest term will reshape many facets of American society in the coming years. Already, however, the rulings offer glimpses of how the justices view specific circuit courts, which have themselves been reshaped by an abundance of new judges.

  • July 05, 2024

    Breaking Down The Vote: The High Court Term In Review

    The U.S. Supreme Court's lethargic pace of decision-making this term left the justices to issue a slew of highly anticipated and controversial rulings during the term's final week — rulings that put the court's ideological divisions on vivid display. Here, Law360 takes a data dive into the numbers behind this court term.

  • July 05, 2024

    High Court Flexes Muscle To Limit Administrative State

    The U.S. Supreme Court's dismantling of a 40-year-old judicial deference doctrine, coupled with rulings stripping federal agencies of certain enforcement powers and exposing them to additional litigation, has established the October 2023 term as likely the most consequential in administrative law history.

  • July 05, 2024

    The Sharpest Dissents From The Supreme Court Term

    The U.S. Supreme Court's session ended with a series of blockbuster cases that granted the president broad immunity, changed federal gun policy and kneecapped administrative agencies. And many of the biggest decisions fell along partisan lines.

  • July 05, 2024

    5 Moments That Shaped The Supreme Court's Jan. 6 Decision

    When the high court limited the scope of a federal obstruction statute used to charge hundreds of rioters who stormed the Capitol, the justices did not vote along ideological lines. In a year marked by 6-3 splits, what accounts for the departure? Here are some moments from oral arguments that may have swayed the justices.

  • July 05, 2024

    The Funniest Moments Of The Supreme Court's Term

    In a U.S. Supreme Court term teeming with serious showdowns, the august air at oral arguments filled with laughter after an attorney mentioned her plastic surgeon and a justice seemed to diss his colleagues, to cite just two of the term's mirthful moments. Here, we look at the funniest moments of the term.

  • July 05, 2024

    Trade Groups Sue Denver Over Gas Stove Ban

    A coalition of trade groups representing the restaurant, home construction, rental housing and propane gas industries have claimed in Colorado federal court that two Denver ordinances that restrict the use of gas appliances can't be enforced because they're preempted by federal law.

  • July 05, 2024

    2024 Global M&A, Mega-Deal Values Outpacing 2023

    Dealmakers and the attorneys who represent them came into 2024 with a sense of cautious optimism about the mergers and acquisitions market.

  • July 05, 2024

    Judge Rips High-Rise's 'Remarkable' $8.5M Coverage Pursuit

    An Illinois federal judge smacked down an $8.5 million coverage bid from the former owners of Chicago's historic Pittsfield building after finding they "boldly and repeatedly" misrepresented the extent of repair costs, instead ordering them to repay Travelers.

  • July 05, 2024

    The Firms That Won Big At The Supreme Court

    This U.S. Supreme Court term featured high-stakes oral arguments on issues including gerrymandering, abortion and federal agency authority, and a hot bench ever more willing to engage in a lengthy back-and-forth with advocates. Here's a look at the law firms that argued the most cases and how they fared.

  • July 05, 2024

    Farmworkers Union Wins Partial Block Of DOL Wage Rules

    A Washington federal judge partly blocked U.S. Department of Labor rules on prevailing wage rates that a union claimed depressed farmworkers' wages, saying the agency failed to consider effects on workers and must reinstate wage rates from 2020.

  • July 05, 2024

    Unilateral Climate Policies Threaten Trade, WTO Deputy Says

    Touting a new trade agreement between Costa Rica, Iceland, New Zealand and Switzerland, a World Trade Organization deputy director-general said the multilateral system is at a crossroads where more countries must work together to address the link between trade and climate change or risk harming progress on both fronts.

Expert Analysis

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • What NYC's Green Fast Track Means For Affordable Housing

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    New York City's Green Fast Track for Housing initiative, which went into effect last month, aims to speed up the environmental review process for modest residential developments and could potentially pave the way for similar initiatives in other cities, say Vivien Krieger and Rachel Scall at Cozen O'Connor.

  • 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.

  • 3 Ways Agencies Will Keep Making Law After Chevron

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    The U.S. Supreme Court clearly thinks it has done something big in overturning the Chevron precedent that had given deference to agencies' statutory interpretations, but regulated parties have to consider how agencies retain significant power to shape the law and its meaning, say attorneys at K&L Gates.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Expect Few Changes In ITC Rulemaking

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's opinion overruling the Chevron doctrine will have less impact on the U.S. International Trade Commission than other agencies administering trade statutes, given that the commission exercises its congressionally granted authority in a manner that allows for consistent decision making at both agency and judicial levels, say attorneys at Polsinelli.

  • Opinion

    Reform NEPA To Speed Mining Permits, Clean Energy Shift

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    It is essential to balance responsible regulatory oversight with permit approvals for mining projects that are needed for the transition to renewable energy — and with the National Environmental Policy Act being one of the leading causes of permit delays, reform is urgently needed, say Ana Maria Gutierrez and Michael Miller at Womble Bond.

  • Opinion

    Atty Well-Being Efforts Ignore Root Causes Of The Problem

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    The legal industry is engaged in a critical conversation about lawyers' mental health, but current attorney well-being programs primarily focus on helping lawyers cope with the stress of excessive workloads, instead of examining whether this work culture is even fundamentally compatible with lawyer well-being, says Jonathan Baum at Avenir Guild.

  • Calif. Long-Tail Ruling Continues Policyholder-Friendly Trend

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    The California Supreme Court's recent ruling in Truck Insurance Exchange v. Kaiser Cement & Gypsum, rejecting horizontal policy exhaustion, was the latest in a string of its decisions involving insurance coverage for continuous or progressive injury claims that favor policyholders, say Billie Mandelbaum and David Goodwin at Covington.

  • A Case Study For Calif. Cities In Water Utility Takeovers

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    With growing water scarcity and drier weather looming, some local governments in California have sought to acquire investor-owned water utilities by eminent domain — but the 2016 case of Claremont v. Golden State Water is a reminder that such municipalization attempts must meet certain statutory requirements, say attorneys at Nossaman.

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