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Companies Mentioned
Hogan & Hartson Reps Opon In $400M Delta Deal
Friday, Mar 19, 2010
Delta Petroleum Corp. has said it will sell 37.5 percent of its assets in Colorado's Piceance Basin to Opon International LLC for $400 million.
FERC Orders NERC To Close Standards Loophole
Friday, Mar 19, 2010
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has given the North American Electric Reliability Corp. 90 days to shore up its procedures for developing mandatory bulk electric system reliability standards, aiming to close a loophole that allows NERC voting members to block FERC directives on reliability matters.
Troutman Energy Team To Launch Portland Office
Friday, Mar 19, 2010
Troutman Sanders LLP plans to set up shop in Portland, Ore., where it will focus on building its energy practice with the help of three partners skilled in utility and regulatory matters.
US Suspends Oil Leases For Environmental Review
Friday, Mar 19, 2010
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management following the agency's decision to suspend leases on 61 parcels of public land that conservation groups argued were opened to oil and gas drilling without consideration of whether doing so would worsen global warming.
Solar Cell Maker MEMC Loses Bid To Toss ERISA Suit
Friday, Mar 19, 2010
A federal judge has refused to dismiss an Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action alleging solar cell maker MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. continued to invest employee contributions to a 401(k) plan in company stock when it knew the stock was no longer a good investment.
New Trial For Boston Gas, Century In Coverage Suit
Friday, Mar 19, 2010
A district judge has ordered a new trial in a protracted dispute over Century Indemnity Co.'s liability for damages in an environmental cleanup suit against Boston Gas Co., finding that the all-sums approach used in the first trial could not support the pro rata theory adopted by a federal appeals court.
Green Groups Fight Va.'s Bid To Block GHG Action
Friday, Mar 19, 2010
Two environmental groups have launched a legal challenge to Virginia's quest to block the federal regulation of greenhouse gases, arguing in support of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's finding that the emissions endanger human health and welfare.
Gas Cos. Go For Win In BP Propane Monopoly Suit
Friday, Mar 19, 2010
A group of gas companies has asked a federal judge to issue a summary judgment ruling that BP America Inc. put a stranglehold on supplies of propane when it tried to corner the market in 2004.
Faulty Accounting Lands Ormat In Securities Flap
Friday, Mar 19, 2010
Ormat Technologies Inc. has been hit with a putative class action accusing the geothermal energy company and its officers of misleading investors and maintaining loose accounting practices that led to an otherwise avoidable decline in share prices.
PG&E Ballot Measure In Calif. Anti-Competitive: Utilities
Friday, Mar 19, 2010
A group of locally owned public utilities in California is seeking to invalidate a proposition on an upcoming statewide ballot, claiming it would allow Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to monopolize the state's energy markets.
FERC Unveils New Civil Penalty Enforcement Guidelines
Thursday, Mar 18, 2010
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission adopted new civil penalty guidelines Thursday that it says will increase the fairness, consistency and transparency of its enforcement determinations.
NuStar To Pay $1.2M To Settle Monitoring Suit
Thursday, Mar 18, 2010
NuStar Energy LP’s pipeline unit has agreed to cough up more than $1.2 million to settle a lawsuit alleging the company failed to properly guard against oil spills at eight large-scale storage facilities in violation of the Clean Water Act.
EPA Launches New Hydraulic Fracturing Probe
Thursday, Mar 18, 2010
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency launched an investigation Thursday into whether the increasingly popular natural gas excavation process known as hydraulic fracturing poses a threat to nearby water sources.
Ecuadoreans Appeal Arbitration Move In Chevron Spat
Thursday, Mar 18, 2010
Ecuadorean indigenous groups seeking $27 billion in environmental damages from Chevron Corp. have appealed a federal judge's recent decision allowing the oil giant to take the long-running case to arbitration.
Innospec Settles Bribery, Embargo Claims For $40M
Thursday, Mar 18, 2010
Innospec Inc. has agreed to pay $40.2 million to resolve civil and criminal cases in the U.S. and U.K., pleading guilty on Thursday to defrauding the United Nations, bribing officials in the Iraqi Ministry of Oil and violating the U.S. embargo against Cuba.
DOI Scores $950M In Gulf Of Mexico Oil Lease Auction
Thursday, Mar 18, 2010
The federal government has received more than $949 million in high bids for oil and gas leases on millions of acres in the Gulf of Mexico off the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
Auto Industry Group Takes EPA's Side On GHG Limits
Thursday, Mar 18, 2010
A coalition of major U.S. automakers including Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. is fighting an attempt by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, to block the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from taking action on greenhouse gases, saying that it could halt implementation of a national fuel standard.
SEC Atty Seeks To Avoid Deposition In Fraud Suit
Thursday, Mar 18, 2010
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking to block the deposition of one of its attorneys in the agency's securities fraud case against former Aerokinetic Energy Corp. general counsel Daniel W. Nodurft.
Calif. Energy Officials Back Major Solar Power Project
Thursday, Mar 18, 2010
The staff of the California Energy Commission has recommended approval of BrightSource Energy Inc.'s plan to build a large-scale commercial solar thermal power plant in the Mojave Desert, which would double the amount of solar energy produced in the U.S.
Schumer Pushes For Probe Of NRC Background Checks
Thursday, Mar 18, 2010
Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., has called for an immediate investigation into the background checks conducted on employees at U.S. nuclear plants, following reports that a suspected al-Qaida member held various jobs at five New Jersey facilities.
From Fracking Legislation To Groundwater Litigation
There is no proven link between fracking and groundwater contamination. But if Congress passes fracking fluid disclosure legislation, it may nonetheless lead to litigation. Plaintiffs would need only to find a contaminant in a groundwater source, and then search for a nearby petroleum field where fracking was or had been in use, says C. Brannon Robertson of King & Spalding LLP.
Return To PLAs On Federally Funded Plant Construction
Most new energy plant construction is funded or assisted, at least in part, by the federal government and so it will be subject to Executive Order 13,502, which encourages contracting agencies to mandate the use of a project labor agreement in order to establish common labor terms for all construction workers on the project, say Jonathan C. Fritts and Chaka A. Keiller of Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP.
Strategies In PSD Permitting Of Greenhouse Gases
In light of the long-standing practice of advocacy groups to use the Prevention of Significant Deterioration process to delay or prevent large industrial projects, companies need short- and long-term strategies for planning the construction of a new facility or the modification of an existing facility with significant greenhouse gas emissions, say Patricia Finn Braddock and Bob Greenslade of Fulbright & Jaworski LLP.
Citizens United: A Congressional Opportunity
A difficult but potentially soluble problem regarding the influence of public corporations having large capital concentrations arises from the Supreme Court’s recent decision on campaign finance laws and the opinion’s explicit recognition of political free speech for corporate organizations in Citizens United, says Fred T. Isquith of Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP.
Bat Woes On Wind Farms: Obstacles For Industry
As the recent Beech Ridge Energy LLC decision demonstrates, incentives for wind energy projects may help make such projects more economically attractive but they will not shield a project developer from the bite of the Endangered Species Act, says Thomas Jackson of Baker Botts LLP.
Climate Change Considerations Under NEPA
If finalized, a recent draft guidance from the Council on Environmental Quality would help resolve debate over National Environmental Policy Act analyses by recommending — and in some cases requiring — consideration of climate change issues by federal agencies poised to take “major actions” under the statute, say Nicki Carlsen, Kristin Holloway Jones and C. Max Zygmont of Alston & Bird LLP.
Climate Change Disclosures For Public Companies
Climate change disclosure issues are maturing at the same time senior management is under increased scrutiny for accurate and transparent financial reports under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Corporate managers should be asking whether climate change and greenhouse gas regulation have a material effect on business, say Heather Aley Austin, Wray Blattner and Andrew L. Kolesar of Thompson Hine LLP.
Green IP: Avoiding Mistakes Of Technologies Past
As their predecessors in the semiconductor, software and Internet fields have learned, inventors of green technologies will need to make prudent choices between patent and trade secret protection for their inventions, says Keith L. Slenkovich of WilmerHale.