Try our Advanced Search for more refined results
Environmental
-
August 06, 2024
DC Circ. Axes FERC Reauthorizations For Texas LNG Projects
The D.C. Circuit on Tuesday vacated reauthorization orders that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued for liquefied natural gas projects on the Texas Gulf Coast over environmental analysis deficiencies.
-
August 06, 2024
39 Law Firms Call On 6th Circ. To Reverse FirstEnergy Ruling
Dozens of law firms have signed on to an amicus curiae brief urging the Sixth Circuit to reverse a decision in a FirstEnergy shareholder litigation, the latest voices in the legal, insurance and business communities to call on the appellate court to reverse an Ohio federal judge's ruling they warn will threaten attorney-client privilege.
-
August 06, 2024
Exxon Assistant GC Jumps To Duane Morris As Trial Partner
A longtime attorney at Exxon Mobil Corp. has made the move from in-house to private practice at Duane Morris LLP to begin the next chapter of his career.
-
August 06, 2024
Solar Tech Co. SunPower Hits Ch. 11 With $2B Of Debt
Residential solar technology company SunPower Corporation filed for Chapter 11 protection in Delaware with more than $2 billion of funded debt obligations and plans for an asset sale.
-
August 06, 2024
Energy Dept. Awards $2.2B For 8 Grid Upgrade Projects
The U.S. Department of Energy on Tuesday awarded $2.2 billion of congressional funding for an eight-pack of electric grid projects, including $700 million for a transmission line that would create a new link between the western and eastern portions of the U.S. grid.
-
August 05, 2024
FTC Says Syngenta 'Distorts' Info Rules In Competition Case
The Federal Trade Commission is urging a North Carolina federal court to force Syngenta Corp. to produce documents in a lawsuit accusing the chemical maker and Corteva Inc. of suppressing competition from cheaper generic pesticides, emphasizing that the information is relevant to the case despite Syngenta's contentions to the contrary.
-
August 05, 2024
Abandoned Gas Wells Class Action Survives 4th Circ. Battle
The Fourth Circuit on Monday rejected EQT Corp.'s and Diversified Energy Co.'s efforts to evade a proposed class action filed by West Virginia property owners who allege they've been harmed by abandoned oil and gas wells.
-
August 05, 2024
GSA Makes First Tribal Carbon-Free Electricity Purchase
A Seneca Nation holding company is the first tribal majority-owned business to be awarded a bid from the U.S. General Services Administration to sell carbon pollution-free electricity to the federal agency, a move that's been in the works since at least April.
-
August 05, 2024
Monsanto PCB Appeals Win Has Shallow Impact, Families Say
A group of families suing Monsanto alleging they were poisoned by chemicals at a Washington school has told a trial judge their case can't be limited by the state's 12-year statute of repose for product liability claims, even though an appellate court did just that in a related case.
-
August 05, 2024
Star Peak Shareholders Consolidate And Amend Class Action
Mix-and-match attorney teams will lead and manage a proposed class stockholder suit alleging damages from the blank check company deal that took artificial intelligence-driven energy storage business Stem Inc. public in April 2021, Delaware's chancellor has ruled.
-
August 05, 2024
Top Groups Lobbying The FCC
The Federal Communications Commission heard from advocates nearly 180 times in July on issues ranging from rural broadband to Wi-Fi hot spots for schools and libraries, new payment rates for phone call captioning, spectrum for the electric grid, and more.
-
August 05, 2024
Army Corps Fights Amendment To Miss. Dolphin Harm Suit
The Army Corps of Engineers told a federal judge that Mississippi local governments and industry groups should not be allowed to amend a lawsuit claiming its diversion of trillions of gallons of polluted floodwater into the Mississippi Sound unlawfully harmed bottlenose dolphins.
-
August 05, 2024
Former Refiner Can't Dodge Polluted Water Remedy
A Virgin Islands oil refinery that spewed oil onto neighbors' properties has lost its Third Circuit challenge to a court-ordered program that required it to buy bottled water for residents too poor to buy it themselves.
-
August 05, 2024
Washington, Tribes Back EPA's Health Criteria For The State
The state of Washington and five Native American tribes have argued that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rightly restored more than 140 human health criteria aimed at protecting the state's residents from toxic pollutants, urging a D.C. federal judge to reject several business groups' attempt to overturn the agency's rule.
-
August 05, 2024
El Paso Inks Deal Over NM Agency's $1.3M Sewage Dump Fine
An El Paso, Texas, water utility is moving to end a lawsuit against the New Mexico Environment Department that challenged two compliance orders and a nearly $1.3 million penalty imposed against it over sewage diversions into the Rio Grande.
-
August 05, 2024
Transportation Policies To Watch: Midyear 2024 Review
Rail and aviation safety reforms following recent incidents, stricter vehicle emission standards guiding automakers' gradual pivot to electrification, and the integration of new automation and drone technology are some of the transportation industry's top regulatory priorities to watch in the second half of 2024.
-
August 05, 2024
Pennsylvania Legislation To Watch In 2024: A Midyear Report
The Pennsylvania Legislature is following other jurisdictions striving to make social media safer while preserving free speech, and putting stricter limits on "forever chemicals" that had been widely used in firefighting applications and products for resisting stains and stickiness. Here, Law360 looks at some of the Pennsylvania bills attorneys are watching in 2024.
-
August 05, 2024
9th Circ. Denies Rehearing Bid In ESA Fish Protection Suit
The Ninth Circuit denied conservation groups' request to rehear a ruling affirming the federal government's approval of water supply contracts for the Central Valley Project in California.
-
August 05, 2024
PE Firms Carlyle, Quantum Ink $3B Deal For US Power Co.
Houston-based Quantum Capital Group said Monday it has agreed to purchase Cogentrix Energy, a U.S. independent power producer, from Carlyle for about $3 billion.
-
August 02, 2024
Hawaii Inks $4B Maui Wildfires Deal Ahead Of Anniversary
The state of Hawaii, Charter Communications and the state's largest utility have agreed to shell out $4 billion to resolve hundreds of lawsuits lodged after a deadly wildfire broke out in Maui nearly a year ago, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green announced on Friday.
-
August 02, 2024
BigLaw Insurer Calls FirstEnergy Ruling Threat To Privilege
The Attorneys' Liability Assurance Society and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce threw their support Friday behind FirstEnergy's call for the Sixth Circuit to block investors' access to internal investigative documents produced by two BigLaw firms after a $1 billion bribery scandal became public.
-
August 02, 2024
Glancy Prongay To Rep Investors In Landslide Risks Suit
Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP will represent a proposed class of investors in consolidated litigation alleging a Colorado-based mining company's unsafe practices precipitated a landslide, hurting investors when its trading prices dropped.
-
August 02, 2024
Iowa, ND Move For Win In NEPA Rule Fight
States led by Iowa and North Dakota are asking a federal judge to scrap a Council on Environmental Quality rule they say threatens to turn the National Environmental Policy Act into an "action-forcing" process to advance the Biden administration's climate and environmental justice goals.
-
August 02, 2024
Pa. AG Wants More From Feds' Norfolk Southern Settlement
Pennsylvania's attorney general was concerned Friday that a proposed $310 million settlement with Norfolk Southern Railway — intended to cover the cleanup costs, civil penalties and community health concerns after a fiery 2023 derailment in East Palestine, Ohio — did not go far enough in making the railroad pay for healthcare costs or implement safety upgrades.
-
August 02, 2024
Wolverine, Travelers Drop Coverage Claims Over PFAS Suits
Footwear company Wolverine and various Travelers units have agreed to end their coverage battle over underlying lawsuits accusing the company of injuring individuals through its leather tannery operations and exposing individuals to so-called forever chemicals, the parties told a Michigan federal court.
Expert Analysis
-
Circuit Judge Writes An Opinion, AI Helps: What Now?
Last week's Eleventh Circuit opinion in Snell v. United Specialty Insurance, notable for a concurrence outlining the use of artificial intelligence to evaluate a term's common meaning, is hopefully the first step toward developing a coherent basis for the judiciary's generative AI use, says David Zaslowsky at Baker McKenzie.
-
A Look At M&A Conditions After FTC's Exxon-Pioneer Nod
The Federal Trade Commission's recent consent decree imposing several conditions on Exxon Mobil's acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources helps illustrate key points about the current merger enforcement environment, including the probability of further investigations in the energy and pharmaceutical sectors, say Ryan Quillian and John Kendrick at Covington.
-
Opinion
US Solar Import Probe's Focus On China Is Misguided
The U.S. Department of Commerce's recent anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigation focuses on the apparent Chinese ownership of solar device importers in four Southeast Asian countries — a point that is irrelevant under the controlling statute, says John Anwesen at Lighthill.
-
3 Recent Decisions To Note As Climate Litigation Heats Up
Three recent rulings on climate-related issues — from a New York federal court, a New York state court and an international tribunal, respectively — demonstrate both regulators' concern about climate change and the complexity of conflicting regulations in different jurisdictions, say J. Michael Showalter and Robert Middleton at ArentFox Schiff.
-
12 Keys To Successful Post-Trial Juror Interviews
Post-trial interviews offer attorneys an avenue to gain valuable insights into juror decision making and get feedback that can inform future litigation strategies, but certain best practices must be followed to get the most out of this research tool, say Alexa Hiley and Brianna Smith at IMS Legal.
-
New TSCA Risk Rule Gives EPA Broad Discretion On Science
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recent final amendments to its framework for evaluating the risks of chemical substances under the Toxic Substances Control Act give it vast discretion over consideration of scientific information, without objective criteria to guide that discretion, say John McGahren and Debra Carfora at Morgan Lewis.
-
Perspectives
Trauma-Informed Legal Approaches For Pro Bono Attorneys
As National Trauma Awareness Month ends, pro bono attorneys should nevertheless continue to acknowledge the mental and physical effects of trauma, allowing them to better represent clients, and protect themselves from compassion fatigue and burnout, say Katherine Cronin at Stinson and Katharine Manning at Blackbird.
-
Series
Playing Music Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My deep and passionate involvement in playing, writing and producing music equipped me with skills — like creativity, improvisation and problem-solving — that contribute to the success of my legal career, says attorney Kenneth Greene.
-
Contractors Must Prep For FAR Council GHG Emissions Rule
With the U.S. Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council expected to finalize its proposed rule on the disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions and climate-related financial risk this year, government contractors should take key steps now to get ready, say Thomas Daley at DLA Piper, Steven Rothstein at the Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets, and John Kostyack at Kostyack Strategies.
-
Lessons In High-Profile Jury Selection Amid NY Trump Trial
Richard Gabriel and Michelle Rey LaRocca at Decision Analysis consider how media exposure can affect a prospective juror in a high-profile case, the misunderstood nature of bias, and recommendations for jury selection in these unique situations as the Trump hush money trial continues in New York.
-
How Attys Can Avoid Pitfalls When Withdrawing From A Case
The Trump campaign's recent scuffle over its bid to replace its counsel in a pregnancy retaliation suit offers a chance to remind attorneys that many troubles inherent in withdrawing from a case can be mitigated or entirely avoided by communicating with clients openly and frequently, says Christopher Konneker at Orsinger Nelson.
-
Opinion
We Need A Legislative Path To Power Plant Emissions Cuts
With the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's newest regulation targeting power plant carbon emissions likely to be overturned by courts or a future administration, it's time for bipartisan legislation to preserve affordable, reliable electricity while substantially decarbonizing the sector by midcentury, say Jeffrey Holmstead at Bracewell and Samuel Thernstrom at the Energy Innovation Reform Project.
-
Using A Children's Book Approach In Firm Marketing Content
From “The Giving Tree” to “Where the Wild Things Are,” most children’s books are easy to remember because they use simple words and numbers to tell stories with a human impact — a formula law firms should emulate in their marketing content to stay front of mind for potential clients, says Seema Desai Maglio at The Found Word.
-
The State Of Play In DEI And ESG 1 Year After Harvard Ruling
Almost a year after the U.S. Supreme Court decided Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, attorney general scrutiny of environmental, social and governance-related efforts indicates a potential path for corporate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives to be targeted, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.
-
How To Use Exhibits Strategically Throughout Your Case
Exhibits, and documents in particular, are the lifeblood of legal advocacy, so attorneys must understand how to wield them effectively throughout different stages of a case to help build strategy, elevate witness preparation and effectively persuade the fact-finders, say Allison Rocker at Baker McKenzie and Colorado prosecutor Adam Kendall.