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Environmental
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September 23, 2024
Fired Sotera Exec's Vesting Suit Goes Forward In Del.
Delaware's Court of Chancery dismissed on Monday some claims in a former Sotera Health Co. executive's suit accusing the lab-testing and sterilization firm of wrongly refusing to grant him severance benefits and equity awards worth millions, while holding other claims for trial.
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September 23, 2024
Brockovich, Attys Warn Of PFAS Dangers At Ga. Town Halls
More than 400 people gathered in northwest Georgia over the weekend to attend two town hall meetings hosted by a group of law firms and paralegal-turned-environmental advocate Erin Brockovich concerning claims of local water and environmental contamination allegedly caused by chemical giant 3M Co., as well as the potential health risks associated with so-called forever chemicals.
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September 23, 2024
NY Extends Industrial Property Tax Break Application Deadline
New York state extended by four years to 2029 the deadline to apply for property tax abatements for eligible industrial and commercial buildings in New York City as part of a bill signed by Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul.
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September 23, 2024
SEC Scores $12M Judgment In Unregistered Dealer Case
A Minnesota federal judge has ordered financial firm Carebourn Capital LP, its founder and an affiliated company to pay more than $12 million in disgorgement and prejudgment interest over U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission claims they made millions selling securities as unregistered dealers.
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September 23, 2024
US Can't Pin Clean Water Act Violation On Fla. Farmer
A Florida federal judge recommended that a court rule in favor of a landowner sued by the government for allegedly violating the Clean Water Act after polluting wetlands to build a farm, saying a man-made ditch bordering the property isn't technically connected to navigable waters of the United States.
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September 23, 2024
Hawaii Judge Says Tenants Must Arbitrate Water Pollution Suit
The named plaintiffs in a proposed class of Hawaii tenants must arbitrate the individual claims in their water contamination case against a landlord while their other claims are paused, an Aloha State federal judge has ruled.
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September 23, 2024
La. Wants EPA Civil Rights Regs Vacated After Court Win
Louisiana is asking a federal judge to revisit an order and amend it to completely vacate U.S. Environmental Protection Agency civil rights regulations, after the judge granted the Pelican State's motion for a permanent injunction within its borders.
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September 23, 2024
Conn. Reaches $5M Deal To Resolve Vision Solar Case
Connecticut is asking a judge to sign off on a judgment that would impose a $5 million civil penalty against Vision Solar LLC to resolve the state's unfair trade practices complaint against the bankrupt company.
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September 20, 2024
Wash. Strikes Deal With Wild Fish Groups To End ESA Row
Two conservation groups have struck an agreement with Washington state to drop a claim that some of its hatchery programs are unlawfully imperiling protected wild salmon on the Lower Columbia River, though the groups will continue to pursue similar claims against Oregon and the National Marine Fisheries Service.
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September 20, 2024
Cards Against Humanity Hits SpaceX With $15M Trespass Suit
Cards Against Humanity LLC hit Elon Musk's SpaceX with a $15 million lawsuit in Texas state court, alleging SpaceX has trespassed and dumped trash and machinery on its once-pristine Lone Star State property that the party card game-maker bought to impede former President Donald Trump's U.S.-Mexico border wall.
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September 20, 2024
Court Cuts Down Antitrust Suit From Loggers, Landowners
An Oregon federal court has tossed a lawsuit by loggers and landowners that accused Iron Triangle LLC of monopolizing the market for logging services in part of the Pacific Northwest, saying they failed to show the logging and lumber company has monopoly power.
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September 20, 2024
EPA Defends Methane Rule At Supreme Court
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and green group allies on Friday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reject states' and fossil fuel industry players' effort to block the implementation of a rule strengthening methane emissions control requirements for oil and gas infrastructure.
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September 20, 2024
EV Battery Co. Hit With $207M Default Loss For Lack Of Attys
Shareholders of electrical vehicle battery maker Romeo Power Inc. have secured a $206.8 million default win against the company after it failed to retain new counsel in a proposed class action alleging it concealed its acute shortage of high-quality battery cells before going public via a merger with a blank check company.
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September 20, 2024
Enviro Group Threatens Suit To Protect Newt In Fla., Ga.
The Center for Biological Diversity has notified the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service it plans to sue over the denial of Endangered Species Act protections to a newt species that lives in threatened pine forests and wetlands in southeastern Georgia and north-central Florida.
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September 20, 2024
Law Professors Say Boulder Climate Suit Clearly Preempted
Two law professors and a conservative legal nonprofit have urged Colorado justices to toss a city's climate tort lawsuit, arguing that the claims are clearly preempted by the Clean Air Act and that the city should not be allowed to make climate change policy decisions for the rest of the country.
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September 20, 2024
Utilities Group Wants In On 4th Circ. FERC Grid Policy Fight
A coalition of municipal utilities and electricity cooperatives that rely on transmission facilities they don't own to deliver power urged the Fourth Circuit to let it intervene in an appeal challenging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's recent overhaul of its regional transmission policy.
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September 20, 2024
5th Circ. Says Tribunal Properly Slashed $10.6M Gas Award
A lower court improperly vacated an arbitral tribunal's decision slashing some $4 million from a $10.6 million award issued to a Colorado-based exploration company following a dispute over a Cameroonian natural gas project, the Fifth Circuit ruled Thursday in a published opinion.
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September 20, 2024
IPO Trio Looks To Raise $536M Combined As Autumn Begins
Three companies spanning the energy, healthcare and life sciences industries are preparing initial public offerings that could raise $536 million combined in the coming week, guided by six law firms, signaling an upturn in IPOs as autumn begins.
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September 20, 2024
House Passes GOP Push To Nix EPA Auto Emissions Regs
The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives on Friday passed a resolution that would block implementation of the Biden administration's tighter greenhouse gas emissions standards for cars and light trucks, though the legislation is likely dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
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September 20, 2024
Insurers Say Ky. House Damage Wasn't From Mine Collapse
Insurers told a Kentucky federal court to toss a couple's case seeking compensation for damage to their home because of coal mine subsidence, arguing the damage wasn't caused by a collapsing void underground.
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September 20, 2024
CFTC Issues Final Guidance On Carbon Credit Markets
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Friday put forth guidelines it says will help foster transparency and deter manipulation in the emerging market for voluntary carbon credits by, among other things, encouraging derivatives exchanges to assess the environmental benefits associated with the credits.
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September 20, 2024
DuPont Cos. Can't Escape Cape Fear River PFAS Suit
A North Carolina federal judge said DuPont and several corporate spin-offs can't escape a lawsuit brought by four Tar Heel State residents who claim the companies knowingly poisoned the Cape Fear River with toxic forever chemicals pollution.
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September 20, 2024
Chevron's Demise May Not Bring Deluge Courts Had Feared
Though the death of Chevron deference has opened a door to attacking administrative decisions, the expected uptick in litigation probably won't threaten to clog federal courts, numerous administrative law experts told Law360.
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September 20, 2024
DOE Picks 25 Battery Projects For $3B Of Awards
The U.S. Department of Energy on Friday said it has selected 25 projects across 14 states for negotiations for $3 billion of federal funding aimed at boosting the domestic production and recycling of batteries and key materials.
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September 20, 2024
Green Groups Can't Bar Housing Project, SC Judge Says
A South Carolina federal judge on Thursday denied conservation groups' push to block a 9,000-unit housing development on the Cainhoy Peninsula near Charleston, ruling they've not shown they're likely to succeed in a case challenging federal reviews and approvals.
Expert Analysis
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E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Text Message Data
Electronically stored information on cellphones, and in particular text messages, can present unique litigation challenges, and recent court decisions demonstrate that counsel must carefully balance what data should be preserved, collected, reviewed and produced, say attorneys at Sidley.
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What CRA Deadline Means For Biden Admin. Rulemaking
With the 2024 election rapidly approaching, the Biden administration must race to finalize proposed agency actions within the next few weeks, or be exposed to the chance that the following Congress will overturn the rules under the Congressional Review Act, say attorneys at Covington.
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IP Considerations For Companies In Carbon Capture Sector
As companies collaborate to commercialize carbon capture technologies amid massive government investment under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a coherent intellectual property strategy is more important than ever, including proactively addressing and resolving questions about ownership of the technology, say Ashley Kennedy and James De Vellis at Foley & Lardner.
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Keeping Up With Class Actions: A New Era Of Higher Stakes
Corporate defendants saw unprecedented settlement numbers across all areas of class action litigation in 2022 and 2023, and this year has kept pace so far, with three settlements that stand out for the nature of the claims and for their high dollar amounts, says Gerald Maatman at Duane Morris.
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5 Climate Change Regulatory Issues Insurers Should Follow
The climate change landscape for insurers has changed dramatically recently — and not just because of the controversy over the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate-related risk disclosure rules, says Thomas Dawson at McDermott.
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What's Extraordinary About Challenges To SEC Climate Rule
A set of ideologically diverse legal challenges to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate disclosure rule have been consolidated in the Eighth Circuit via a seldom-used lottery system, and the unpredictability of this process may drive agencies toward a more cautious future approach to rulemaking, say attorneys at Thompson Coburn.
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Series
Swimming Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Years of participation in swimming events, especially in the open water, have proven to be ideal preparation for appellate arguments in court — just as you must put your trust in the ocean when competing in a swim event, you must do the same with the judicial process, says John Kulewicz at Vorys.
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Opinion
SEC Doesn't Have Legal Authority For Climate Disclosure Rule
Instead of making the required legal argument to establish its authority, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate-related disclosure rule hides behind more than 1,000 references to materiality to give the appearance that its rule is legally defensible, says Bernard Sharfman at RealClearFoundation.
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What 100 Federal Cases Suggest About Changes To Chevron
With the U.S. Supreme Court poised to overturn or narrow its 40-year-old doctrine of Chevron deference, a review of 100 recent federal district court decisions confirm that changes to the Chevron framework will have broad ramifications — but the magnitude of the impact will depend on the details of the high court's ruling, say Kali Schellenberg and Jon Cochran at LeVan Stapleton.
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Opinion
SEC Should Be Allowed To Equip Investors With Climate Info
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's new rule to require more climate-related disclosures will provide investors with much-needed clarity, despite opponents' attempts to challenge the rule with misused legal arguments, say Sarah Goetz at Democracy Forward and Cynthia Hanawalt at Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change.
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Microplastics At The Crossroads Of Regulation And Litigation
Though there are currently not many federal regulations specifically addressing microplastics as pollutants, regulatory scrutiny and lawsuits asserting consumer protection claims are both on the rise, and manufacturers should take proactive steps to implement preventive measures accordingly, say Aliza Karetnick and Franco Corrado at Morgan Lewis.
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How Cos. Can Comply With New PFAS Superfund Rule
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's new rule designating two per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances as "hazardous substances" under the Superfund law will likely trigger additional enforcement and litigation at sites across the country — so companies should evaluate any associated reporting obligations and liability risks, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.
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Understanding The IRC's Excessive Refund Claim Penalty
Taxpayers considering protective refund claims pending resolution of major questions in tax cases like Moore v. U.S., which is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, should understand how doing so may also leave them vulnerable to an excessive refund claim penalty under Internal Revenue Code Section 6676, say attorneys at McDermott.
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Recent Wave Of SEC No-Action Denials May Be Slowing
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in March granted no-action relief to Verizon and others on the grounds that a director resignation bylaw proposal would mean violating Delaware law, bucking recent SEC hesitation toward such relief and showing that articulating a basis in state law is a viable path to exclude a proposal, say attorneys at Winston & Strawn.
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Why RWI Insurers Should Consider Excluding PFAS
As regulation of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances escalates, carriers providing representations and warranties insurance should reconsider providing PFAS coverage on a case-by-case basis, say Dave Bartoletti and Ina Avalon at Taft Stettinius.