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Energy

  • June 25, 2025

    Hanford Contractor To Pay $6.5M To Settle Fraud Allegations

    A contractor tapped to manage and operate a tank farm holding millions of gallons of hazardous and radioactive waste at the Hanford nuclear site in Washington will pay $6.5 million to settle claims it overcharged the U.S. Department of Energy for labor hours, according to federal prosecutors.

  • June 24, 2025

    Wash. Judge Blocks Trump Admin's EV Charging Funds Freeze

    A Seattle federal judge Tuesday issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration from withholding funds for electric vehicle charging infrastructure projects in 14 states, but stopped short of applying it to two other states and Washington, D.C., and stayed the order to give the administration time to appeal.

  • June 24, 2025

    State AGs Sue Trump Admin To Stop Billions In Grant Cuts

    A coalition of 21 states and the District of Columbia filed suit Tuesday in Massachusetts federal court, accusing the Trump administration of unlawfully using a single clause "buried in federal regulations" to nix billions of dollars in federal grant funding to the states.

  • June 24, 2025

    Gazprom Must Pay $1.37B In Naftogaz Contract Fight

    Ukraine's state-owned oil and gas company has claimed victory in a $1.37 billion arbitration against Gazprom after the Russian state-owned energy giant allegedly failed to pay for natural gas transit services.

  • June 24, 2025

    Rail Fuel Surcharge MDL Tossed In Sealed Opinion

    Union Pacific Railroad Co., CSX Transportation Inc., Norfolk Southern Railway Corp. and BNSF Railway Co. scored a decisive win Tuesday against roughly 18 years of price-fixing litigation accusing the country's four largest railroad companies of colluding on freight fuel surcharges, in a sealed opinion issued in D.C. federal court.

  • June 24, 2025

    5th Circ. Says EPA Ignored Cos. To Push Efficiency Testing Rule

    The Fifth Circuit has thrown out part of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rule for determining measures for fuel efficiency, finding Tuesday that the agency used a faulty methodology to justify tightening standards and outright ignored comments when creating the rule.

  • June 24, 2025

    No Coverage For Oil Co. Accused Of Pipe Scheme, Court Told

    Everest Indemnity Insurance Co. is asking a southern Texas federal court to rule that it is not required to indemnify a Houston energy equipment company accused of defrauding an oil and gas operator through faulty pipes.

  • June 24, 2025

    Cable Cos. Push For Faster 'Self-Help' To Upgrade Poles

    Broadband providers need authority to quickly hire their own contractors to upgrade poles for service attachments if utilities that own the infrastructure can't get the work done quickly enough, a cable lobbying group told the Federal Communications Commission.

  • June 24, 2025

    Mich. Court Says Nonprofit Can't Co-Own Power Project

    A Michigan state appellate court on Monday found that the Michigan Public Power Agency's electric transmission lines lack the physical connection required under a 2021 law to co-own two new electric grid upgrade projects, marking the first time an appellate court has tackled the relatively new infrastructure statute.

  • June 24, 2025

    Co. Slams 'Overheated' Reed Smith Brief In Shipping Row

    Reed Smith should not be allowed to halt court proceedings amid its effort to hold onto a client file sought by postbankruptcy owners of Eletson Holdings Inc., a reorganized international shipping company, amid its ongoing dispute with Levona Holdings Ltd., according to briefs both sides filed before the Second Circuit.

  • June 24, 2025

    V&E Adds Investment, Finance Trio In NY, Texas

    Vinson & Elkins LLP has brought on three new partners to strengthen its investment management and finance practices.

  • June 24, 2025

    Simpson Thacher Grows In Houston With Ex-Latham Atty

    An attorney with expertise on financial transactions in the energy and infrastructure industries has moved his practice to Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP's Houston office after nearly 12 years with Latham & Watkins LLP.

  • June 23, 2025

    GOP Plan For Merging Agencies Faces Reckoning, And Alarm

    The Senate parliamentarian has given a thumbs-down to a Republican budget proposal that would allow President Donald Trump to unilaterally eliminate agencies through mergers and consolidation, adding to what experts say are a host of problems with the little-noticed provision.

  • June 23, 2025

    Trump Admin Rescinds Clinton-Era 'Roadless' Logging Rule

    U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announced Monday that she was rescinding the longstanding "Roadless Rule" limiting the number of roads built in national forests, calling the 2001 rule "outdated," contrary to the "will of Congress" and an obstacle to "common sense management of our natural resources."

  • June 23, 2025

    Deep-Sea Mining Co. Beats Investors' Accounting Fraud Suit

    A California federal judge has tossed an investor suit accusing deep sea miner The Metals Co. Inc. and its top brass of flawed accounting related to a strategic partnership, saying the plaintiffs failed to adequately plead the challenged statements were false or that the defendants acted with knowledge of wrongdoing.

  • June 23, 2025

    Permit Delays Out Of Hand, Telecom Biz Tells Interior Dept.

    Telecom providers are still having a tough time getting federal permits approved for broadband projects, with the Bureau of Land Management causing severe delays, the industry's main trade group told the U.S. Department of the Interior.

  • June 23, 2025

    Green Groups Urge DOI To Force Companies To Plug Wells

    Conservation groups on Monday urged the Trump administration to block oil and gas companies with unplugged wells and inactive platforms from securing new offshore drilling rights, accusing the government of letting the companies use the ocean as their junkyard.

  • June 23, 2025

    Apache Nonprofit Asks Justices For Rehearing In Mining Row

    An Apache nonprofit is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider a decision to deny its petition that looked to block the transfer of nearly 2,500 acres to an Arizona copper mining company, arguing the outcome of a case now before the justices could sway their analysis.

  • June 23, 2025

    Regulator Deleted Texts In $62M Gas Rate Feud, Agency Says

    Connecticut's Public Utilities Regulatory Authority cannot produce text messages requested by two gas companies suing to recover $43.2 million and $19.1 million revenue deficiencies because chairperson Marissa Gillett's personal phone was set to automatically delete communications after 30 days, the agency told a judge on Monday.

  • June 23, 2025

    Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

    The Delaware Supreme Court reversed a year-old $199 million judgment against TransCanada in a suit challenging a merger that occurred nearly a decade ago, Aspen Technology Inc. was hit with another suit over its pending $7.2 billion merger with Emerson Electric, and Nielson Holdings Ltd. secured a temporary restraining order against its spinoff. In case you missed it, here's the latest from the Delaware Chancery Court.

  • June 23, 2025

    US Says $1B Keystone XL Pipeline Claim Must Be Axed

    The U.S. has urged an international tribunal to nix a $1.14 billion claim brought by a publicly owned marketing firm for Alberta's crude oil industry over the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline, repeating arguments that the panel lacks jurisdiction to consider the dispute.

  • June 23, 2025

    Justices Nix $23M Venezuela Chemical Co. Suit

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned away a Venezuelan state-owned petrochemicals company's petition challenging the enforcement of a $23 million debt owed to a Florida chemical wholesaler, a case that sought clarity on which party has the burden of proving whether sovereign immunity applies.

  • June 20, 2025

    Science Research Funding Cuts Blocked By Mass. Judge

    A Massachusetts federal judge Friday prohibited the Trump administration from cutting certain National Science Foundation research funding associated with facilities and administrative costs, ruling that the policy runs afoul of multiple laws and the government hasn't adequately explained its reasoning.

  • June 20, 2025

    EPA Told To Explain Its Crop-Based Fuel Standards

    The D.C. Circuit on Friday returned a mixed opinion on challenges from green groups to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's 2023-2025 renewable fuel standards, upholding the agency's volume-setting process but ruling that its climate change analysis was arbitrary and capricious under the Clean Air Act.

  • June 20, 2025

    Mich. Says Feds Can't Block AG's Climate Tort Suit

    The Trump administration's lawsuit to block Michigan from suing fossil fuel companies for climate harms is based on guesswork about a hypothetical lawsuit and should be dismissed, Michigan argued Friday.

Expert Analysis

  • Reading The Tea Leaves On Mexico, Canada And China Tariffs

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    It's still unclear whether the delay in the imposition of U.S. tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports will result in negotiated resolutions or a full-on trade war, but the outcome may hinge on continuing negotiations and the Trump administration's possible plans for tariff revenues, say attorneys at Eversheds Sutherland.

  • Fund Names Rule FAQs Leave Some Interpretative Uncertainty

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    Although recently released FAQs clarify many specific points of the 2023 expansion to the Investment Company Act's fund names rule, important questions remain about how U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission staff will interpret other key terms when the end-of-year compliance date arrives, say attorneys at Dechert.

  • How Design Thinking Can Help Lawyers Find Purpose In Work

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    Lawyers everywhere are feeling overwhelmed amid mass government layoffs, increasing political instability and a justice system stretched to its limits — but a design-thinking framework can help attorneys navigate this uncertainty and find meaning in their work, say law professors at the University of Michigan.

  • Opinion

    US Steel-Nippon Merger Should Not Have Been Blocked

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    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. 

  • 10 Issues To Watch In Aerospace And Defense Contracting

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    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.

  • Will Independent Federal Agencies Remain Independent?

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    For 90 years, members of multimember independent federal agencies have relied on the U.S. Supreme Court's 1935 ruling in Humphrey's Executor v. U.S. establishing the security of their positions — but as the Trump administration attempts to overturn this understanding, it is unclear how the high court will respond, says Harvey Reiter at Stinson.

  • Navigating The Trump Enviro Rollback And Its Consequences

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    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.

  • 4 Do's And Don'ts For Trial Lawyers Using Generative AI

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    Trial attorneys who use artificial intelligence tools should review a few key reminders, from the likelihood that prompts are discoverable to the rapid evolution of court rules, to safeguard against embarrassing missteps, says Nate Sabri at Perkins Coie.

  • Defense Strategies For Politically Charged Prosecutions

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    Politically charged prosecutions have captured the headlines in recent years, providing lessons for defense counsel on how to navigate the distinct challenges, and seize the unique opportunities, such cases present, says Kenneth Notter at MoloLamken.

  • Series

    Competitive Weightlifting Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    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.

  • 8 Ways Cos. Can Prep For Termination Of Their Enviro Grants

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    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.

  • The Syria Sanctions Dilemma Facing Trump Administration

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    Parties looking to engage in transactions involving Syria will be watching the expiration of General License 24 in July, when the Trump administration will need to decide whether to make significant changes to the Syrian sanctions program and reconsider the de facto government's status as a foreign terrorist organization, says Charlie Lyons at Ferrari & Associates.

  • How Trump EPA Could Fix Carbon Combustion Residuals Rule

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    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.

  • Nippon Order Tests Gov't Control Over Foreign Investments

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    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.

  • Opinion

    Inconsistent Injury-In-Fact Rules Hinder Federal Practice

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    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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