Featured Articles

First Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Auction Results: Massachusetts Gets $13.3 Million

Seth Jaffe
September 30, 2008 18:17

  The operators of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI Inc., announced yesterday that all of the 12,565,387 CO2 allowances offered for sale in the first RGGI auction on September 25, 2008 were purchased at $3.07 per allowance. This is above the auction reserve price of $1.86 per...

Recent Articles

Endangered Species Act Still a Complication for Energy Development

August 03, 2011 18:30

By Pam Giblin and Carlos Romo, Baker Botts L.L.P. Since its inception and the early battles over the snail darter and the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Tellico Dam in the 1970s, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) has been substantially entangled with energy production in the United States....

The Process Continues: Savannah Harbor Expansion Project (SHEP)

August 01, 2011 18:24

The deepening of the Savannah Harbor, now estimated to cost $588 million, was conditionally approved in part when Congress passed the Water Resources Development Act of 1999 (“WRDA99”). Those conditions included finalizing an environmental impact statement for the project as well as...

Maryland Issues Notice of Intent to Sue for Pennsylvania Fracking Fluid Release

July 26, 2011 18:45

The increasingly controversial issues surrounding the extraction of natural gas by “fracking” took an unusual turn on May 2, 2011 when the Attorney General for the State of Maryland notified Chesapeake Energy Corporation and its affiliates of the State’s intent to sue for...

Supreme Court to Give Unilateral Administrative Orders a Constitutional Checkup

July 22, 2011 18:15

Yesterday, Ted Garrett posted a blog on the Supreme Court’s grant of certiorari in Sackett v. EPA, 2011 WL 675769 (No. 10-162, June 28, 2011) which involves appeal of an EPA enforcement order under the Clean Water Act (CWA). His blog notes that the Court declined to review a similar appeal...

Supreme Court to Review Lawfulness of EPA Enforcement Orders

Theodore Garrett
July 21, 2011 16:58

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of EPA compliance orders under the Clean Water Act. Sackett v. EPA, 2011 WL 675769 (No. 10-162, June 28, 2011). The petition for a writ of certiorari was granted to consider: “(1) whether petitioners may seek...

Permit as Shield Against Environmental Claims Under State Tort Law - At Least in the Fourth Circuit

July 20, 2011 16:17

In the 1980s a group of Vermont landowners challenged the legality of a New York paper mill’s wastewater discharges into Lake Champlain. The Vermonters argued that the paper mill’s discharges in New York constituted a nuisance because of the injuries they caused in Vermont. They sought...

Assessing the Assessor: Are We Headed to Heightened Scrutiny of the Phase I Environmental Site Assessment?

Charles Efflandt
July 19, 2011 19:23

  Phase I Environmental Site Assessments (Phase I ESAs) are conducted: (1) to assess environmental and health risks related to the acquisition and development of real property and (2) as a critical component of establishing the Bona Fide Prospective Purchaser (BFPP) or related defenses to...

SIXTH CIRCUIT RULES THAT TWOMBLY AND IQBAL MUST BE STRICTLY APPLIED

Jack Shumate
July 13, 2011 18:33

On June 21, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held, in New Albany Tractor, Inc. v. Louisville Tractor, Inc. that the Supreme Court's rulings in Twombly and Iqbal must be strictly applied, mandating dismissal of a case in which the complaint failed to contain sufficient allegations of...

WHY INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS CARE ABOUT CORPORATE SUSTAINABILTY

Christopher Davis
July 13, 2011 18:26

  Institutional investors, including pension funds, insurance companies, foundations and university endowments, own about 70 percent of the stock of the world’s largest companies. As part of their fiduciary duty to maximize the long-term, risk-adjusted value of their investments,...