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Environmental
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March 06, 2025
Senate Dems Press Citibank To Thaw Frozen EPA Grant Funds
A group of Democratic U.S. senators on Thursday urged Citibank to immediately release federal funding that's been frozen as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency investigates how a climate change grant program was run.
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March 06, 2025
Pigment Co. Not Covered For Asbestos Suits, Court Told
A Liberty Mutual unit doesn't owe coverage to a cosmetic pigment manufacturer in underlying suits alleging injury from exposure to asbestos-containing materials, it told a New York federal court, saying certain claims fall outside the scope of coverage because they're not based on the company's work.
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March 06, 2025
Trump Administration Ordered To Release Funds To States
A Rhode Island judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to stop withholding funds from states, saying an executive order freezing federal grants, loans and other payments approved by Congress "fundamentally undermines" the separation of powers and is causing irreparable harm.
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March 05, 2025
DOGE Firings, Agency Cuts Targeted In New Sierra Club Suit
The Sierra Club and Union of Concerned Scientists were among several groups that lobbed a new suit against Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency on Wednesday, slamming the billionaire and DOGE for the "lawless" slashing of funds and federal workers.
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March 05, 2025
Feds Urge Justices To Allow Nuke Waste Storage In Texas
The federal government on Wednesday told U.S. Supreme Court justices that the Fifth Circuit wrongly inserted itself into the debate over U.S. nuclear waste policy by nixing federal approval for a temporary storage facility in Texas.
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March 05, 2025
Union Says DOI Mischaracterized Ariz. Solar Project Site
A Laborers' International Union of North America local has urged an Arizona federal court to throw out the U.S. Department of the Interior's approval of a large-scale solar facility on public lands, saying the agency misstated the project site's baseline conditions.
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March 05, 2025
Enviro, Transit Groups Back NY In Congestion Pricing Battle
Transit and environmental advocates have sought to join the legal fight to preserve New York City's congestion pricing, saying the Trump administration is using dubious rationale to justify terminating federal approval for the program when the decision was actually driven by political animus.
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March 05, 2025
Trump EPA Nominees Grilled On Climate Change Views
President Donald Trump's pick to lead the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's air office repeatedly told Democratic senators that humans must adapt to climate change, but declined to wade into policy specifics during a nomination hearing Wednesday.
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March 05, 2025
Wash. Justices Won't Take Up VW's $4.7M Asbestos Loss
The estate of a mechanic who died of mesothelioma he claimed he contracted from asbestos in Volkswagen AG's brake pads can keep a $4.7 million jury win, after the Washington state's highest court rejected the automaker's bid for review.
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March 05, 2025
Water Main Co. Will Pay $1M After Chemicals Killed Fish
A sewer and water line maintenance company was sentenced to pay $1 million and will spend three years on federal probation after knowingly dumping pollutants into a Connecticut waterway, killing over 150 fish and contaminating the area, acting U.S. Attorney Marc H. Silverman has announced.
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March 05, 2025
Four Firms Seek Top Roles In Pa. Warehouse Fire Litigation
Lawyers from four plaintiffs firms across the country have asked a Philadelphia judge to name them class counsel in recently filed litigation over the effects of an aircraft parts warehouse fire and also requested that the court consolidate all related lawsuits in the city.
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March 05, 2025
Cleanova, Micronics Combine To Create $1.3B Business
Private equity-owned clean technology maker Cleanova on Wednesday announced plans to buy fellow private equity-owned clean technology manufacturer Micronics Engineered Filtration Group to create a company with an enterprise value of $1.3 billion, in a deal built by three law firms.
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March 05, 2025
Colorado's Last-Resort Insurer Partners With AI Analytics Co.
Colorado's last-resort insurer has partnered with risk modeling company ZestyAI in an effort to improve insurance access for homeowners through the use of artificial intelligence-powered models for heightened climate risks, the company said Wednesday.
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March 05, 2025
UK Planning To Replace Energy Windfall Tax In 2030
The U.K. will phase out the energy profits levy, known as the energy windfall tax, in 2030, but the government plans to replace it with a new permanent tax regime for North Sea oil and gas, according to a statement Wednesday.
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March 04, 2025
Agencies Have 'Ultimate' Authority Over Firings, OPM Says
The Office of Personnel Management on Tuesday issued a revised version of its January memo directing agency heads to identify all probationary employees, adding a disclaimer that OPM "is not directing agencies to take any specific performance-based actions" and that agencies "have ultimate decision-making authority."
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March 04, 2025
3 Takeaways From The High Court's SF Water Permit Ruling
The U.S. Supreme Court's Tuesday ruling siding with San Francisco to strike down parts of a federal water pollution permit demonstrated a majority of justices' reluctance to force permit holders to interpret gray areas that could get them in trouble.
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March 04, 2025
Phillips 66 'Trickery' Merits $1.2B More Damages, Judge Told
A startup that won a $605 million trade secrets verdict against oil giant Phillips 66 argued Tuesday in California state court that its would-have-been acquirer owes an additional $1.2 billion for reprehensible conduct, including by in-house counsel who supposedly made "efforts to cover up" information theft.
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March 04, 2025
10th Circ. Upholds EPA Approval Of Colo. Smog Plan Changes
A Tenth Circuit panel on Tuesday affirmed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's approval of two changes to Colorado's plan to bring Denver and the northern Front Range into compliance with ozone pollution standards, rejecting a challenge brought by conservation groups.
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March 04, 2025
Judge Stays Osage Wind Farm Order, Requires $10M Bond
An Oklahoma federal judge stayed a $4.2 million judgment and order requiring an energy company to remove 84 wind turbines from the Osage Nation's reservation pending the outcome of a Tenth Circuit appeal, ordering the company to pay a $10 million bond in the interim.
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March 04, 2025
Insurer Can't Escape Fla. Condo's Hurricane Damage Dispute
An insurer can't escape a Florida condominium association's suit seeking coverage for property damage caused by a September 2020 hurricane, a New York federal court ruled, saying the association's update of a preexisting elevator replacement bid in light of storm damage was not clearly fraudulent conduct or misrepresentation.
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March 04, 2025
DC Circ. Doubts FERC Was Wrong To OK Tennessee Pipeline
The D.C. Circuit struggled to understand just where environmentalists think FERC messed up when approving a Tennessee pipeline project that would serve a gas-fired power plant that's set to replace a coal-fired one, expressing varying degrees of doubt Monday during arguments.
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March 04, 2025
IRS Drops Push To Penalize Ex-Braves Players For Fraud
The federal government dropped its push Tuesday to reinstate civil fraud penalties against a partnership founded by former Atlanta Braves players John Smoltz and Ryan Klesko in their Eleventh Circuit appeal of a decision slashing their $47 million deduction for a conservation easement donation.
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March 04, 2025
Insurer, Reinsurer Denied Early Wins In Reimbursement Row
Both sides in an inter-insurer dispute over a reinsurer's share of a coverage settlement for environmental damage claims have adopted reasonable contractual interpretations, a New York federal court ruled, specifically finding ambiguities on whether the reinsurer must reimburse a plaintiff insurer with which it didn't directly do business.
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March 04, 2025
Ga. PFAS Liability Bill Faces Debate Ahead Of Key Deadline
A Georgia bill to reduce corporate liability for PFAS contamination on Tuesday received strong industry backing and intense pushback from North Georgia residents and communities who warned state lawmakers against handing "a get-out-of-jail-free card" to carpet manufacturers accused of polluting waterways.
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March 04, 2025
Honeywell Paying $2.2B For Sundyne Amid $25B Deployment
Honeywell said Tuesday it has agreed to acquire pump and gas compressor maker Sundyne from private equity firm Warburg Pincus for $2.16 billion, part of a restructuring plan that calls for the industrial conglomerate to deploy at least $25 billion by the end of 2025.
Expert Analysis
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Lights, Camera, Ethics? TV Lawyers Tend To Set Bad Example
Though fictional movies and television shows portraying lawyers are fun to watch, Hollywood’s inaccurate depictions of legal ethics can desensitize attorneys to ethics violations and lead real-life clients to believe that good lawyers take a scorched-earth approach, says Nancy Rapoport at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
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Steel Cases Test Executive Authority, Judicial Scope
Lawsuits challenging former President Joe Biden’s order blocking the merger of Japan's Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel may shape how future administrations wield presidential authority over foreign investment in the name of national security, says Hdeel Abdelhady at MassPoint Legal.
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What Calif. Bill Could Mean For Battery Energy Storage
A newly proposed bill in the California Legislature would place major restrictions on the development of battery energy storage system projects in the state — but with Gov. Gavin Newsom's strong support for clean energy technology, the legislation will likely face significant obstacles, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.
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3 Ways Trump Can Nix SEC's Climate Disclosure Rules
Given President Donald Trump's campaign statements and agency appointments, it's likely that his administration will try to annul the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate disclosure rules, but his options for doing so present unique opportunities and challenges, with varying levels of permanence and impact, say attorneys at DLA Piper.
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Perspectives
Accountant-Owned Law Firms Could Blur Ethical Lines
KPMG’s recent application to open a legal practice in Arizona represents the first overture by an accounting firm to take advantage of the state’s relaxed law firm ownership rules, but enforcing and supervising the practice of law by nonattorneys could prove particularly challenging, says Seth Laver at Goldberg Segalla.
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Reg Waiver Eases Calif. Rebuilding, But Proceed With Care
California Gov. Gavin Newsom's executive order suspending some environmental review and permitting requirements for the reconstruction of homes and businesses damaged by recent wildfires may streamline rebuilding efforts, but will require careful navigation of the evolving regulatory landscape, says Gregory Berlin at Alston & Bird.
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The Post-Macquarie Securities Fraud-By-Omission Landscape
While the U.S. Supreme Court's 2024 opinion in Macquarie v. Moab distinguished inactionable "pure omissions" from actionable "half-truths," the line between the two concepts in practice is still unclear, presenting challenges for lower courts parsing statements that often fall within the gray area of "misleading by omission," say attorneys at Katten.
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Trump's Energy Plans: Climate, Data Centers, LNG And More
With a host of executive orders addressing climate and emissions policies, expanded energy development, offshore and onshore projects, liquefied natural gas and more, the second Trump administration has already given energy companies much to consider, say attorneys at Gibson Dunn.
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AI Will Soon Transform The E-Discovery Industrial Complex
Todd Itami at Covington discusses how generative artificial intelligence will reshape the current e-discovery paradigm, replacing the blunt instrument of data handling with a laser scalpel of fully integrated enterprise solutions — after first making e-discovery processes technically and legally harder.
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A View Of The Shifting Insurance Regulatory Landscape
Attorneys at Eversheds Sutherland explore how the Federal Insurance Office's climate report, the new presidential administration and the California wildfires might affect the insurance regulatory landscape.
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Trump's Energy Plans: Funding, Permits And Nuclear Power
In the wake of President Donald Trump's flurry of first-day executive orders focusing on the energy sector, attorneys at Gibson Dunn analyze what this presidency will mean for energy-related grants and loans, changes to permitting processes and developments in nuclear power.
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When Innovation Overwhelms The Rule Of Law
In an era where technology is rapidly evolving and artificial intelligence is seemingly everywhere, it’s worth asking if the law — both substantive precedent and procedural rules — can keep up with the light speed of innovation, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
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The Tides Are Changing For Fair Access Banking Laws
The landscape of fair access banking laws, which seek to prevent banks from denying services based on individuals' ideological beliefs, has shifted in the last few years, but a new presidential administration provides renewed momentum for advancing such legislation against the backdrop of state efforts, say attorneys at Latham.
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Imagine The Possibilities Of Openly Autistic Lawyering
Andi Mazingo at Lumen Law, who was diagnosed with autism about midway through her career, discusses how the legal profession can create inclusive workplaces that empower openly autistic lawyers and enhance innovation, and how neurodivergent attorneys can navigate the challenges and opportunities that come with disclosing one’s diagnosis.
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A Halftime Analysis Of DOJ's Compensation Pilot Program
The U.S. Department of Justice appears to consider the first half of its three-year pilot program on compensation incentives and clawbacks to be proceeding successfully, so companies should expect prosecutors to emphasize the program and other compliance-related considerations early in investigations, say attorneys at Debevoise.