Environmental

  • October 04, 2024

    High Court Nuclear Case Could Be Admin Law Blockbuster

    By agreeing to consider the federal government's authority to license temporary nuclear waste storage facilities, the U.S. Supreme Court can ease the uncertainty facing a resurgent U.S. nuclear industry as well as clarify limits it's recently placed on federal agency power, experts say.

  • October 04, 2024

    Energy Cos. Say Toshiba Unit Can't Use Parent's Jury Waiver

    Michigan's largest energy companies said a jury should hear their claims that a Toshiba subsidiary botched a $500 million job to renovate their jointly owned power plant, saying a jury trial waiver in an agreement with the parent company doesn't apply to the unit that did the work.

  • October 04, 2024

    EPA Finalizes Stronger Pesticide Rules For Farmworker Safety

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule strengthening protections for agricultural workers who could be exposed to pesticides, standards that had been weakened by the Trump administration.

  • October 04, 2024

    Enviro Group Drops EPA Fight Over Colo. Refinery Permit

    The Center for Biological Diversity agreed to end its Tenth Circuit challenge to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's refusal to object to a series of state permit changes for a Denver-area oil refinery, according to a Friday court filing.

  • October 04, 2024

    DC Circ. Won't Pause EPA's Iron Plant Rule

    A D.C. Circuit panel rejected bids by U.S. Steel Corp. and Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. to stay a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rule setting emissions standards for their taconite iron ore processing facilities.

  • October 04, 2024

    NC Atty Dies In Hurricane Helene, Legal Community Rattled

    A North Carolina family law attorney was included in the rising death toll caused by Hurricane Helene, whose effects were felt throughout the region's legal community.

  • October 04, 2024

    Europe Votes To Raise Tariffs On Electric Vehicles From China

    European Union member states voted Friday to impose higher tariffs on imports of battery electric vehicles from China for the next five years, adding to the already staggering tariffs imposed by the United States and Canada.

  • October 04, 2024

    UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

    This past week in London has seen GMB Union sued by the makers of Tetley Tea after a staff walkout in September, boxer Mike Tyson hit with legal action from a marketing company and the Met Police face a misuse of private data claim from a woman who had a relationship with an undercover police officer. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

  • October 04, 2024

    Justices Won't Block EPA Methane Control Rule

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday rejected pleas by Republican-led states and fossil fuel industry groups to block implementation of an Environmental Protection Agency rule strengthening methane emissions control requirements for oil and gas infrastructure.

  • October 04, 2024

    Justices Won't Freeze EPA's Mercury Rule During Challenge

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday allowed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to implement its recent rule strengthening mercury air emission standards while red states' and fossil fuel groups' challenges proceed at the D.C. Circuit.

  • October 04, 2024

    High Court Will Review 5th Circ. Bar On Nuclear Waste Site

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday said it will review the Fifth Circuit's decision to bar the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission from issuing a license to a temporary nuclear waste storage facility in Texas.

  • October 03, 2024

    Ill. Top Court Asked To Restore $7B Power Line Permit

    Illinois utility regulators on Thursday urged the state's top court to reverse a lower court's decision striking a key permitting decision for part of the $7 billion Grain Belt Express high-voltage transmission line, saying the faulty ruling threatens the legislature's clean energy goals.

  • October 03, 2024

    Fifth Third Bank Solar Panel Loan MDL Centralized In Minn.

    A collection of proposed class actions accusing Fifth Third Bank NA of hiding loan costs from customers will be consolidated in Minnesota, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation ruled Thursday, noting that the judge assigned hasn't presided over an MDL yet.

  • October 03, 2024

    Drivers Rip GM's Bid For Full 6th Circ. Redo In Emissions Row

    A group of drivers on Thursday balked at General Motors' bid to get the full Sixth Circuit to review a divided panel's recent decision partly reviving consolidated litigation alleging the automaker deceptively marketed Chevrolet Silverado and Sierra vehicles as being more environmentally friendly than they actually were.

  • October 03, 2024

    NC Woman Sues Duke Energy Over Coal Ash Management

    A Catawba County woman has hit Duke Energy with a lawsuit in a North Carolina state court asserting that contamination stemming from its management of coal ash waste caused her to develop kidney cancer.

  • October 03, 2024

    Colo. Billionaire's Brief Sparks Call For Gorsuch Recusal

    A Colorado billionaire once hired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch as a budding young lawyer, later campaigned for the future justice's first judicial appointment and subsequently urged the court to loosen requirements for federal environmental reviews — all of which has sparked a call for the justice to bow out of one of the upcoming term's key cases.

  • October 03, 2024

    Energy Dept. Hands Out $1B Loan For EV Charging Expansion

    The U.S. Department of Energy announced on Thursday that it has made a conditional commitment for a loan guarantee of up to $1.05 billion aimed at expanding public electric vehicle charging infrastructure across the country.

  • October 03, 2024

    12 Lawyers Who Are The Future Of The Supreme Court Bar

    One attorney hasn't lost a single U.S. Supreme Court case she's argued, or even a single justice's vote. One attorney is perhaps "the preeminent SCOTUS advocate." And one may soon become U.S. solicitor general, despite acknowledging there are "judges out there who don't like me." All three are among a dozen lawyers in the vanguard of the Supreme Court bar's next generation, poised to follow in the footsteps of the bar's current icons.

  • October 03, 2024

    Colo. Panel Finds No Proof Of Bias In Reservoir Project Vote

    A Colorado Court of Appeals panel Thursday upheld the dismissal of environmental groups' lawsuit challenging a permit approval for a Northern Colorado pipeline and reservoir project, rejecting claims that two county officials were too biased and should have recused themselves from the vote.

  • October 03, 2024

    Georgia Resident Adds To Lawsuits Targeting Bio-Lab Fire

    A resident of Conyers, Georgia, is adding to the litigation against Bio-Lab Inc. and its corporate parent, KIK Custom Products Inc., with a proposed class action filed after a fire at the company's facility in the city on Sunday led to evacuation and shelter-in-place orders.

  • October 03, 2024

    Flint Water Judge Wishes Public Knew Case Complexity

    A Michigan federal judge on Thursday gave the final approval to a $25 million settlement to end claims from a class of Flint adults and businesses accusing a firm of failing to properly alert officials about the dangers of the city's water, noting that the case took years to resolve because it involved complicated legal issues.

  • October 03, 2024

    EPA Can Protect Records In Pebble Mine Fight, Judge Says

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has secured a blanket protection order on all administrative records that may be subject to copyright protection in litigation brought by Alaska seeking to challenge the agency's veto of the controversial Pebble Mine.

  • October 03, 2024

    NJ Contractors Accused Of $10M Fraud In Lead Removal Work

    A New Jersey construction company billed the city of Newark $10.2 million for replacing 1,500 lead water service lines but never did the work, instead concocting false evidence to show new copper pipes had been installed, federal authorities said Thursday in announcing the arrests of the chief executive and a foreperson.

  • October 03, 2024

    Hecla Avoids Investor Suit Over $462M Gold Mine Buy

    A gold mining operation secured the permanent dismissal of an investor suit alleging that $462 million in new mines the company bought in Nevada that were supposed to be lucrative turned out to be duds, with a New York federal judge finding the investors failed to plead any actionable false or misleading statements.

  • October 03, 2024

    Mine Can't Toss CSX's Suit Over Derailment After Hurricane

    A North Carolina federal judge won't throw out claims from CSX Transportation Inc. against a North Carolina sand and gravel mine over a 2018 derailment, finding there's sufficient evidence for a jury to conclude the mine was negligent in its water management, leading to erosion following Hurricane Florence that washed out a section of track.

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    States Should Loosen Law Firm Ownership Restrictions

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    Despite growing buzz, normalized nonlawyer ownership of law firms is a distant prospect, so the legal community should focus first on liberalizing state restrictions on attorney and firm purchases of practices, which would bolster succession planning and improve access to justice, says Michael Di Gennaro at The Law Practice Exchange.

  • How Attorneys Can Reduce Bad Behavior At Deposition

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    To minimize unprofessional behavior by opposing counsel and witnesses, and take charge of the room at deposition, attorneys should lay out some key ground rules at the outset — and be sure to model good behavior themselves, says John Farrell at Fish & Richardson.

  • FERC Rule Is A Big Step Forward For Transmission Planning

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    The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's recent electric transmission system overhaul marks significant progress to ensure the grid can deliver electricity at reasonable prices, with a 20-year planning requirement and other criteria going further than prior attempted reforms, say Tom Millar and Gwendolyn Hicks at Winston & Strawn.

  • Series

    Solving Puzzles Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Tackling daily puzzles — like Wordle, KenKen and Connections — has bolstered my intellectual property litigation practice by helping me to exercise different mental skills, acknowledge minor but important details, and build and reinforce good habits, says Roy Wepner at Kaplan Breyer.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Environmental Law May Face Hurdles

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling overturning Chevron deference could prove to be as influential as the original 1984 decision, with far-reaching implications for U.S. environmental laws, including rendering recently promulgated regulations more vulnerable to challenges, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Texas Ethics Opinion Flags Hazards Of Unauthorized Practice

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    The Texas Professional Ethics Committee's recently issued proposed opinion finding that in-house counsel providing legal services to the company's clients constitutes the unauthorized practice of law is a valuable clarification given that a UPL violation — a misdemeanor in most states — carries high stakes, say Hilary Gerzhoy and Julienne Pasichow at HWG.

  • 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.

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