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Environmental
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February 21, 2025
Quinn Emanuel-Backed Clients Join Eaton Fire Litigation Fray
Southern California Edison on Friday was hit with yet another lawsuit over the destructive Eaton Fire, this time by an Altadena family represented by Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, the largest firm yet to get involved in the litigation.
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February 21, 2025
Colo. Woman Tells Jury Sterilization Plant Caused Cancer
A woman claiming medical sterilization company Terumo caused a cancer cluster in her Colorado community took the stand Friday and told a state jury that her lymphoma gave her debilitating fatigue and self-doubt.
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February 21, 2025
Energy Transfer Brings $300M Greenpeace Case To Jury
Dakota Access Pipeline builder Energy Transfer LP heads to trial Monday against Greenpeace in a $300 million defamation suit over Greenpeace's role in supporting Standing Rock Indian Reservation protests — a suit the environmental group calls an attempt to stifle free speech. Here, Law360 previews what to watch for in the hotly anticipated trial.
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February 21, 2025
GOP Leader Zeros In On Enviro And Fintech Rules For Repeal
An Internal Revenue Service rule targeting digital asset sales and U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission guidance on the trading of voluntary carbon credits are among the environmental and financial regulations that Republicans are prioritizing for repeal, according to House Majority Leader Steven Scalise.
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February 21, 2025
Calif. Lawmakers Unveil 'Polluters Pay' Superfund Legislation
A pair of California lawmakers on Friday introduced legislation that would require the biggest polluters to pitch in and put a portion of their profits toward climate-related disaster mitigation, a measure they said aims to relieve the burden on taxpayers in the wake of catastrophes such as wildfires.
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February 21, 2025
Judge Trims $40M Green Energy Co. Investor Suit
A Tennessee federal judge won't toss a proposed class action claiming that a Chicago green energy outfit and its executives used false promises of extravagant returns to lure investors, but ruled two defendants can escape some of the suit's claims.
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February 21, 2025
Judge Questions Trump Administration Fund Freeze Authority
A Rhode Island federal judge on Friday left in place a temporary restraining order blocking a funding freeze by President Donald Trump's administration until the judge can rule on a request by a coalition of states for a preliminary injunction.
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February 21, 2025
Green, Tribal Orgs Ask To Defend Biden DOI's Coal Decision
Tribal and conservation groups have asked a federal court to let them join Wyoming and Montana's suit against the U.S. Department of the Interior over the Biden administration's 2024 decision ending new coal leasing on public lands in the Powder River Basin.
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February 21, 2025
Energy Co. Says Osage Shouldn't Rush To Destroy Wind Farm
Enel Green Power North America is urging a federal district court to stay a $4.2 million judgment and order requiring it to remove 84 wind turbines from the Osage Nation's reservation while it appeals to the Tenth Circuit, arguing that the appellate court could find their destruction was unnecessary.
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February 21, 2025
Exxon Can't Dodge RICO Claims In Puerto Rico Federal Court
A U.S. magistrate judge said Puerto Rican municipalities should be allowed to pursue racketeering and antitrust claims against energy companies including Exxon Mobil Corp. that they allege misrepresented the climate dangers of fossil fuel products.
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February 21, 2025
Solar Farm Says FERC Can't Justify Grid Upgrade Cost Order
Developers of a Texas solar farm told the D.C. Circuit that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission acted unlawfully by allowing a transmission operator to assign them $311 million in grid upgrade costs to connect their solar project to the grid.
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February 21, 2025
Nuke Plant Renewal Rules Ignore Climate Risks, DC Circ. Told
Anti-nuclear power groups on Thursday told the D.C. Circuit that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission unlawfully ignored accident risks due to aging equipment and climate change when it crafted new nuclear power plant license renewal rules.
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February 21, 2025
Veolia Ends One Of Few Remaining Flint Water Suits For $53M
A water engineering firm on Friday said it will pay $53 million to settle claims from the state of Michigan and thousands of Flint residents who allege the company failed to properly identify corrosion control treatment issues or alert officials to the dangers of the city's water, prolonging the water crisis.
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February 21, 2025
1st Circ. Revives Clean Air Claims Over Idling Shuttle Buses
Excessive exhaust fumes and concerns about the negative health effects of pollution from idling buses are injuries in fact that can establish standing for members of an environmental advocacy group to sue over violations of the Clean Air Act, the First Circuit said on Thursday, reviving a 5-year-old lawsuit.
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February 21, 2025
Fed. Circ. Scraps Ruling On $14M Army Corps Contract Row
A contract appeals board didn't fully consider the entirety of a modified contract before determining a company tapped to provide emergency power services in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico was not entitled to a $14 million claim, a Federal Circuit panel ruled.
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February 21, 2025
Taxation With Representation: Kirkland, V&E, Cravath, Dechert
In this week's Taxation With Representation, Diamondback Energy buys Midland Basin assets from another oil and natural gas company, GTCR closes its second strategic growth fund, Light & Wonder Inc. buys Grover Gaming's assets, and Barings acquires Artemis Real Estate Partners.
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February 20, 2025
DOJ Says Job Protections For ALJs Are Unconstitutional
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday that it no longer backs long-standing job protections for administrative law judges, saying it has determined that the "multiple layers of removal restrictions" shielding ALJs are unconstitutional because they violate the separation of powers doctrine.
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February 20, 2025
Tribes Fail To Win Reversal Of Ore. Casino Project Decision
A D.C. federal judge has denied a bid by three tribes to reverse an Interior Department decision approving a land trust application for another tribe in what is Oregon's first off-reservation casino, ruling that they've failed to show how the project would harm them.
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February 20, 2025
Better Process Not Certain As White House Loses NEPA Regs
The White House says it rescinded National Environmental Policy Act regulations in an effort to "expedite and simplify" the federal permitting process, but attorneys say the immediate effect of the move will likely be to confuse agencies and slow down project approvals.
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February 20, 2025
Insurer Can't Quickly Exit Broker Premium Theft Row
A Louisiana federal court rejected most arguments made by an insurer seeking to avoid professional liability coverage of a broker whose former employee stole policy premiums and failed to secure insurance for clients, leaving the company to cover around $1 million in Hurricane Laura damage.
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February 20, 2025
Calif. Rail Project Back In Trump's Crosshairs With DOT Probe
The U.S. Department of Transportation on Thursday launched a compliance review into California's high-speed rail project, casting uncertainty over approximately $4 billion in federal funding for the beleaguered project that is back in the Trump administration's crosshairs.
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February 20, 2025
FERC Chair Seeking More Clarity On Scope Of Trump Order
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Mark Christie downplayed concerns Thursday that a recent executive order from President Donald Trump will erode the agency's authority, but acknowledged that it's unclear how much the order seeks to involve the White House in FERC's operations.
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February 20, 2025
New SEC Guidance Throws A 'Bit Of Chaos' Into Proxy Season
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent effort to loosen its guidance around what companies can exclude from their proxy statements isn't surprising given the change in administration, but the timing of its release has thrown a monkey wrench into a proxy season that is already underway, attorneys said.
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February 20, 2025
DOD To Shift $50B To Trump Defense Spending Priorities
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed the agency to shift $50 billion from its 2026 budget away from "Biden-legacy programs" to programs that align with President Donald Trump's "America first" agenda.
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February 20, 2025
Green Groups Ask 9th Circ. To Press EPA Again On Atrazine
Environmental groups are urging the Ninth Circuit to reopen a long-running case against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over its regulation around the pesticide atrazine, arguing that the agency's yearslong delay in completing a court-ordered review of the chemical has allowed "serious harm to people, plants and wildlife."
Expert Analysis
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Opinion
US Steel-Nippon Merger Should Not Have Been Blocked
The Biden administration's block of the U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel merger on national security grounds was unconstitutional overreach and needs to be overturned, with the harms remedied in federal court, says attorney Chuck Meyer.
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10 Issues To Watch In Aerospace And Defense Contracting
This year, in addition to evergreen developments driven by national security priorities, disruptive new technologies and competition with rival powers, federal contractors will see significant disruptions driven by the new administration’s efforts to reduce government spending, regulation and the size of the federal workforce, say attorneys at Thompson Hine.
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Navigating The Trump Enviro Rollback And Its Consequences
The Trump administration's rapid push for environmental deregulation will lead to both opportunities and challenges, requiring companies to adopt strategic approaches to a complex, unpredictable legal environment in which federal rollbacks are countered by increased enforcement by states, and risks of citizen litigation may be heightened, say attorneys at Beveridge & Diamond.
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Series
Competitive Weightlifting Makes Me A Better Lawyer
The parallels between the core principles required for competitive weightlifting and practicing law have helped me to excel in both endeavors, with each holding important lessons about discipline, dedication, drive and failure, says Damien Bielli at VF Law.
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8 Ways Cos. Can Prep For Termination Of Their Enviro Grants
The federal government appears to be reviewing energy- and infrastructure-related grants and potentially terminating grants inconsistent with the Trump administration's stated policy goals, and attorneys at DLA Piper provide eight steps that recipients of grants should consider taking in the interim.
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Opinion
Undoing An American Ideal Of Fairness
President Donald Trump’s orders attacking birthright citizenship, civil rights education, and diversity, equity and inclusion programs threaten hard-won constitutional civil rights protections and decades of efforts to undo bias in the law — undermining what Chief Justice Earl Warren called "our American ideal of fairness," says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
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How Trump EPA Could Fix Carbon Combustion Residuals Rule
The Trump administration is likely targeting the recently adopted carbon combustion residual rule, especially since it imposes very stringent, detailed and expedited requirements on coal power plants — but even if the rule is not vacated entirely, there are measures that could greatly reduce its regulatory burden, says Stephen Jones at Post & Schell.
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Nippon Order Tests Gov't Control Over Foreign Investments
The U.S. government is primarily interested in restraining foreign transactions involving countries of concern, but former President Joe Biden’s January order blocking the merger of Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel shows that all foreign direct investments are under the federal government’s microscope, say attorneys at Blank Rome.
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Opinion
Inconsistent Injury-In-Fact Rules Hinder Federal Practice
A recent Third Circuit decision, contradicting a previous ruling about whether consumers of contaminated products have suffered an injury in fact, illustrates the deep confusion this U.S. Supreme Court standard creates among federal judges and practitioners, who deserve a simpler method of determining which cases have federal standing, says Eric Dwoskin at Dwoskin Wasdin.
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How Trump Orders Roll Back Energy Efficiency Mandates
President Donald Trump's first-day executive orders — including a freeze on administrative rules, an order to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement, and a directive to broaden consumers' appliance choices — have shifted federal policy on energy efficiency, and bring new considerations for companies engaging with the U.S. Department of Energy, say attorneys at HWG.
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Expect Continued Antitrust Enforcement In Procurement
The scope of federal antitrust enforcement under the second Trump administration remains uncertain, but the Procurement Collusion Strike Force, which collaborates with federal and state agencies to enforce antitrust laws in the government procurement space, is likely to remain active — so contractors must stay vigilant, say attorneys at Ballard Spahr.
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In-House Counsel Pointers For Preserving Atty-Client Privilege
Several recent rulings illustrate the challenges in-house counsel can face when attempting to preserve attorney-client privilege, but a few best practices can help safeguard communications and effectively assert the privilege in an increasingly scrutinized corporate environment, says Daniel Garrie at Law & Forensics.
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Emerging Energy Trends Reflect Shifting Political Landscape
As the Trump administration settles in, some emerging energy industry trends, like expanded support for fossil fuel production, are right off of its wish list — while others, like the popularity of Inflation Reduction Act energy tax credits, and bipartisan support for carbon capture, reflect more complex political realities, say attorneys at Greenberg Traurig
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Tax-Free Ways To Help Employees After The LA Wildfires
Following the recent wildfires in Los Angeles, there are various tax-free ways to give employees the resources and flexibility they need, including simpler methods like disaster relief payments under Internal Revenue Code Section 139 and leave-sharing programs, and others that require more planning, says Ligeia Donis at Baker McKenzie.
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Improving Comms Between Trial Attys And Tech Witnesses
In major litigation involving complex technology, attorneys should employ certain strategies to collaborate with companies' technical personnel more effectively to enhance both the attorney's understanding of the subject matter and the expert's ability to provide effective testimony in court, say attorneys at Buchalter.