DC Circ. Questions Lack Of Carbon Plan For Gas Terminal

By Jared Foretek

Judges on the D.C. Circuit on Monday pressed attorneys for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the company behind a natural gas export terminal and pipeline in South Texas on why they walked away from a connected proposal for carbon sequestration near the project without explanation.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

XAI Fails To Dodge Miss. NAACP Pollution Suit

By Tom Lotshaw

A Mississippi federal judge denied X.AI Corp.'s bid to dismiss an NAACP citizen suit alleging that the company has unlawfully installed and operated dozens of polluting natural gas-fired turbines to power its Colossus 2 data center.

Order attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

BlackRock, State Street Get State AG Coal Suit Trimmed

By Sarah Jarvis

BlackRock and State Street have pared down a lawsuit by Republican state attorneys general accusing them of driving up coal prices, but a Texas federal judge let stand claims brought by Iowa and Nebraska on behalf of their resident electricity consumers.

Opinion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Vistra Closes $4B Cogentrix Deal, With DOJ Approval

By Bryan Koenig

Vistra Corp. closed its acquisition of Cogentrix Energy and its 10 natural gas-powered electricity plants on Friday, the same day the U.S. Department of Justice said it was mollified by the company's plan to divest one Cogentrix plant in Maine and another one in the state already owned by Vistra.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Analysis

Maine's Canada Trade Exemption May Ride On Midterms

By Dylan Moroses

The fate of Maine's relief from the trade war between the U.S. and Canada may lie in the balance of Tuesday's midterm election results, a dynamic that shows how trade policy can be influenced by the political winds, experts said.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Trump To Remove Rwanda, South Africa From Trade Deal

By Asha Glover

President Donald Trump intends to remove Rwanda and South Africa from a trade preference program for African countries, according to a statement released by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on Monday.

Statement attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Blackstone-Led Group Investing $3.1B Into LNG Canada

By Al Barbarino

Blackstone and a group of Canadian institutional partners have agreed to invest $3.1 billion in a Mitsubishi Corp. subsidiary that holds the Japanese company's 15% stake in the LNG Canada natural gas project, the private equity giant and Japanese conglomerate announced Monday.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Fuel Groups Say Courts Must Stay Out Of Calif. Waiver Fight

By Ganesh Setty

Groups representing the natural gas and oil industry urged the D.C. Circuit to reverse preliminary injunction rulings over the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's procedural move sending certain Clean Air Act waivers for California to Congress, arguing that judicial review is barred.

Brief attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Energy Co. Says Toad Listing Ignores Key Geothermal Data

By Joyce Hanson

A Nevada geothermal company seeks an early win in its D.C. federal court suit challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's listing of the Dixie Valley toad as an endangered species, arguing that the agency hasn't considered the best available scientific and commercial data.

Summary Judgment attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

No Coverage For $5M Quarry Wall Collapse Fight, Court Told

By Hope Patti

An insurer said it owes no coverage for an underlying suit claiming that its policyholder constructed a faulty quarry wall that collapsed and cost nearly $5 million to replace, telling an Alabama federal court that the suit alleged faulty workmanship based on intentional conduct rather than an accident.

Complaint attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Latham Adds Baker Botts, Sidley, Orrick Energy Attys

By Andrea Keckley

Latham & Watkins LLP announced Monday that it has hired five partners based in Houston and Washington, D.C., with experience in project development and finance matters across the energy and infrastructure sectors, including liquefied natural gas, power, renewables, data centers and oil and gas.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Logistics Update: Handling Iran War Supply Chain Limitations

The war in Iran is straining global logistics by introducing practical, commercial, legal and claims limitations for both operators and customers — so all supply chain participants must understand the resulting legal issues, and how to respond to them, says Jonathan Todd at Benesch.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

BigLaw Attys Step Up To Help Voters In Midterm Elections

By Jack Karp and Lynn LaRowe

Attorneys from several BigLaw firms are volunteering across the country to make sure voters don't run into problems casting their ballots or having those ballots counted in Tuesday's midterm elections.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Brief

Winston Taylor, DLA Piper Match Milbank Pay Scale

By Tracey Read

Two more BigLaw firms have opted to match the new associate salary scale set by Milbank LLP in June.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Analysis

Judiciary Stuck In AI Rulemaking Rut As Attys, Judges Protest

By Jeff Overley

Judiciary efforts to enact rules for the artificial intelligence age are mired in concerns about burdens on litigators, the tensions between burgeoning technology and snail-paced policymaking, and how to even define AI. And despite vivid examples of AI's risks, officials are inching toward mothballing the prominent project.

1 document attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Judge Orders Chicago US Atty To Testify In Misconduct Probe

By Celeste Bott

An Illinois federal judge has ordered Chicago's top federal prosecutor and three assistant U.S. attorneys to testify under oath about potentially false statements made to her in a now-dismissed criminal conspiracy case against anti-ICE protesters, saying Monday that the government's shifting explanations about communications with DOJ leadership suggest prosecutors misled the court about outside involvement in the prosecution.

Order attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

NY State Bar Says Attys Can't Bill Time Saved By AI

By Andrea Keckley

The New York State Bar Association has told lawyers not to bill clients for the time they saved by using artificial intelligence, or for the time it took to learn a new AI tool.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Interview

SEC's Top Cop On Building A 'Nimble' Enforcement Division

By Jessica Corso

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has lost hundreds of enforcement employees and seen significant restructuring of its regional offices over the past two years, but the Division of Enforcement's director said that hasn't stopped him from building a "nimble" program that is focused on more than just the number of cases filed.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court last week allowed a stockholder claim over R1 RCM Inc.'s $8.9 billion buyout to proceed, while investors in Meta Platforms Inc. sued to block a stock restructuring they say would let CEO Mark Zuckerberg sell billions of dollars in shares without giving up control of the company.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Monthly Merger Review Snapshot

By Matthew Perlman

The Federal Trade Commission caused a pair of playground equipment makers to abandon their planned merger, Canadian enforcers upended a deal for the Green Giant brand in the country and state attorneys general reached settlements for several regional deals.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »