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Environmental
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July 17, 2025
Pyrophyte's 2nd SPAC Raises $175M To Target Energy Biz
Special purpose acquisition company Pyrophyte Acquisition Corp. II began trading on the public markets on Thursday after raising $175 million in its initial public offering.
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July 16, 2025
Travelers Avoids Bad Faith Claim In Yacht Damage Dispute
A Travelers unit did not act in bad faith when handling a yacht owner's claim for coverage after its yacht was destroyed during Hurricane Irma, a Florida federal court ruled Wednesday, saying, at the time, it was unclear whether Florida law or federal maritime law applied.
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July 16, 2025
FCC Looks To Streamline Regs For Enviro Reviews
The Federal Communications Commission expects to move a plan forward in August that would overhaul its rules for scrutinizing telecom and broadband projects under the National Environmental Policy Act.
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July 16, 2025
9th Circ. Tosses Atty-Farmer's Suit Over USDA Organic Label
The Ninth Circuit on Tuesday upheld a U.S. Department of Agriculture rule allowing farm collectives in the U.S. and other countries to be certified as "organic" under one certificate and not inspected annually, tossing an attorney-turned-Oregon hazelnut farmer's suit alleging Turkish growers were defrauding the system.
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July 16, 2025
FEMA Targeted In 20-State Suit Over Pre-Disaster Grant Cuts
A coalition of 20 states led by Washington and Massachusetts sued the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Boston federal court Wednesday, accusing the Trump administration of illegally cutting off billions of dollars in grants for proactive disaster mitigation projects across the country.
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July 16, 2025
US Fights NY's Bid To Move Climate Superfund Suit Upstate
The federal government is urging a Southern District of New York judge not to transfer its lawsuit challenging the state's climate change Superfund law to the Northern District, where it would join similar litigation filed by several Republican-led states.
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July 16, 2025
USTR To Probe Brazil's Trade Practices For Possible Tariffs
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced Tuesday evening it will launch an investigation into Brazil's trade practices to determine whether tariff actions could be necessary after a request by President Donald Trump and prior tariff threats.
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July 16, 2025
Judge Says Navy Must Face Contamination Claim At Calif. Site
A Court of Federal Claims judge trimmed some but not all claims from a suit alleging the Navy breached its obligation to remediate newly discovered petroleum and chloroform contamination at a Novato, California, property it sold two decades ago.
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July 15, 2025
EXIM Bank Sued For 'Unconscionable' LNG Project Funding
Friends of the Earth is asking a D.C. federal judge to block $4.7 billion in financing the Export-Import Bank of the United States has authorized for a massive liquefied natural gas project in Mozambique led by TotalEnergies SE.
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July 15, 2025
The Biggest IP Agency Developments Of 2025: Midyear Report
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the U.S. Copyright Office have not been spared from the Trump administration's shake-ups and changes across the federal government in the first half of the year.
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July 15, 2025
3rd Circ. Backs FAA's Civil Penalty Actions Post-Jarkesy
The Third Circuit on Tuesday backed the Federal Aviation Administration's adjudicatory authority to impose civil penalties for air safety rules violations, saying in a precedential ruling that the U.S. Supreme Court's Jarkesy decision doesn't entitle a paint supplier to a jury trial in a case stemming from a leaky paint can on a FedEx plane.
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July 15, 2025
Deep Sea Mining Co. Gets Suit Over 'Green' Investments Axed
A New York federal judge has dismissed in its entirety a suit accusing The Metals Co. Inc. of misleading investors about the magnitude of its "green" investments and its private equity backing before going public, finding that the suit's challenged statements were not false when made.
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July 15, 2025
EPA Defends Ending Enviro Justice Grants
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has asked a federal judge to dismiss a proposed class action filed by environmental groups, a Native American village and other local governments, alleging the EPA unlawfully stopped $3 billion in climate grant funding.
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July 15, 2025
FTC Still Bans Ex-Pioneer CEO From Exxon Board, For Now
If the current Federal Trade Commission upends Biden-era Democrats' ban on the former CEO of Pioneer from serving on Exxon's board, it will be on the now-Republican-led commission's own volition rather than through a petition by the executive.
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July 15, 2025
Tribes, Enviro Groups Look To Block Copper Mine Land Swap
Environmental and tribal groups are asking a federal court to extend an injunction blocking the transfer of more than 2,500 acres within Tonto National Forest to an Arizona copper mining company, arguing that a final environmental impact study and appraisal of the property raise serious questions in the dispute.
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July 15, 2025
Texas Cities Cite Gov't Immunity In Farmers' PFAS Suit
Governmental entities led by Fort Worth submitted a brief to a Texas federal court Tuesday supporting their immunity in managing wastewater operations in connection with a proposed class action from farmers who claim their lands were contaminated by toxic chemicals.
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July 15, 2025
Monsanto Beats Roundup Suit After Expert Report Failure
Monsanto Co. has defeated a Knoxville, Tennessee, resident's $5 million lawsuit that claimed his 30-year exposure to the herbicide Roundup caused him to develop cancer, after a federal judge ended the litigation due to the man's failure to provide an expert witness supporting his claim.
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July 15, 2025
Trash Hauler Accused Of Blocking Competitor Amid Strike
A Massachusetts competitor to trash hauler Allied Waste Systems says the company is interfering with its efforts to offer customers an alternative during a strike that is entering its third week, according to a complaint filed Tuesday in state court.
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July 15, 2025
La Caisse Plugs $200M Into PE-Backed Renewa
Infrastructure investor QIC Infrastructure on Tuesday announced that its portfolio company Renewa received a $200 million primary equity commitment from investment group La Caisse.
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July 15, 2025
Fla. Tribe Seeks To Join Everglades Detention Center Suit
A Florida Native American tribe has filed a motion to join a federal lawsuit against an immigration detention center constructed in the Everglades, saying the facility poses a direct threat to its livelihood.
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July 15, 2025
Property Co. Says Storm Coverage Row Can't Be Arbitrated
The owner of a New Orleans luxury apartment and retail complex urged the Fifth Circuit to affirm a lower court's decision to vacate a previous order forcing it to arbitrate its $7 million Hurricane Ida damage claims against a group of domestic insurers, saying Louisiana law applies and bars arbitration.
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July 15, 2025
Sunnova Seeks OK For $7M In Ch. 11 Sale Incentives To Execs
Bankrupt solar panel giant Sunnova has asked a Texas bankruptcy court for permission to pay up to $7 million in cash incentives to its top executives, contingent on securing higher sale proceeds than its stalking horse bids for certain assets.
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July 15, 2025
Calif. Legislature OKs Retroactive Solar Property Exclusion
California would allow the purchaser of a new property a three-year window to apply for a property tax exclusion for solar energy systems under a bill passed by the state Senate and sent to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom for approval.
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July 15, 2025
PVC Pipe Buyers Seek Initial OK Of $6M Deal In Antitrust Row
Counsel for two classes of purchasers of polyvinyl chloride pipe urged an Illinois federal judge Tuesday to grant preliminary approval to two $3 million settlements resolving their antitrust claims against an analytics service allegedly used in a conspiracy by PVC pipe makers to inflate the price of their products.
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July 15, 2025
DC Circ. Backs Dismissal Of Green Orgs' Drilling Permit Suit
The D.C. Circuit on Tuesday rejected environmental groups' challenge to the approvals of thousands of federally approved oil and gas drilling permits in New Mexico and Wyoming, finding that a lower court was right to find they lacked standing.
Expert Analysis
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The Math Of Cross-Examination: Less Is More, More Is Less
When conducting cross-examination at trial, attorneys should remember that “less is more, and more is less” — limiting both the scope of questioning and the length of each query in order to control the witness’s testimony and keep the factfinders’ attention, says Thomas Innes at the Defender Association of Philadelphia.
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Rethinking 'No Comment' For Clients Facing Public Crises
“No comment” is no longer a cost-free or even a viable public communications strategy for companies in crisis, and counsel must tailor their guidance based on a variety of competing factors to help clients emerge successfully, says Robert Bowers at Moore & Van Allen.
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Fund Names Rule FAQs Leave Some Interpretative Uncertainty
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.
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How Design Thinking Can Help Lawyers Find Purpose In Work
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.
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Tools For Witness Control That Go Beyond Leading Questions
Though leading questions can be efficient and effective for constraining a witness’s testimony, this strategy isn’t appropriate for every trial and pretrial scenario, so techniques like headlining and looping can be deployed during direct examination, depositions and even witness interviews, says Allison Rocker at Baker McKenzie.
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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.Â
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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.