A divided Supreme Court held that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) exceeded its authority under the Clean Air Act (CAA) when it required certain sources emitting greenhouse gases (GHG) to obtain permits under the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) and Title V Operating Permits (Title V) programs. The decision in Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA (No. 12-1146) on Monday, June 23, reversed the decision of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeal that upheld EPA’s rules ...
The Texas Supreme Court has held that a mineral lessee enjoys surface rights over a pooled tract even if that tract is not producing oil or gas. Key Operating & Equip., Inc. v. Hegar, No. 01-10-00350-CV, 2014 WL 2789933 (Tex. Jun. 20, 2014). Mineral lessee Key pooled part of a 191-acre tract (the Curbo tract) with an adjoining tract (the Richardson tract) to form a single unit. Key used a road across the Curbo tract to reach oil and gas operations on the Richardson tract ...
Consistent with President Obama’s Climate Action Plan, EPA today published two sets of proposed rules, which it refers to as “carbon pollution standards,” relating to greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel-fired electric generating units - for existing stationary sources (79 Fed. Reg. 3480) and for modified and reconstructed sources (79 Fed. Reg. 34980). The publication of these proposals starts the clock running on comments, which are due on or before October 16, 2014 ...
After 115 years under the old regime, the new Water Sustainability Act received Royal Assent on Friday May 20, 2014: an historic occasion to celebrate? Not quite yet, perhaps. The fact is the vast majority of the new statute will not have the force of law until authorized by the Lieutenant Governor in Council at an unspecified future date (section 219). With new water regulations not expected until the spring of 2015, it seems that the new Act will not be binding until that time ...
The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, commonly referred to as CERCLA or Superfund, does not contain any provision for a private cause of action for personal injury or property damage relating to the release of hazardous substances ...
On June 2, 2014, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released its much anticipated program to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants to address climate change ...
An employer faces a difficult situation when a temporarily disabled employee who cannot perform his or her essential job functions requests an accommodation. This situation becomes significantly more complicated when the employee receives the “accommodation,” but never recovers enough to resume performing the essential job functions ...
On 1 April 2014 amendments to the Contributions Act increasing the general rate for health insurance contributions from 13% to 15% came into force. The new contribution rate will be applied to salaries beginning in April 2014. Receipts related to previous periods will be grandfathered in at the previous applicable rate. Unused vacation for 2013 will be calculated at the 13% contribution rate and the new rate will apply to unused vacation in 2014 ...
It seems every week, there is a new story about a company being impacted by a major data breach and the consequences that follow from such breach, including the inevitable lawsuits, public relations nightmare, and governmental investigations. These breach stories are then followed by articles about the high costs to deal with these breach events, including costs to notify consumers, to identify the source of the breach, to pay for credit monitoring, among many other costs ...
Mexico’s Senate received on April 30, the first round of the long-awaited secondary legislation to implement the constitutional energy reform effective last December. This first legislative package includes 9 new laws and modifies 12 existing laws. We anticipate that the package will be discussed and voted on during the extraordinary legislative sessions by the end of June. Below we list some of the highlights ...
Quebec regulations create numerous obligations in connection with equipment that poses a risk to the environment. Replacing PCB-containing transformers, for example, or having high-risk oil and gas equipment inspected. Regulatees may be required to file reports, maintain registers or hold permits. From a regulatory perspective, the management of ozone depleting substances is a big file ...
Texas operators and service companies need to carefully consider how a recent trend in Texas law affects the availability of insurance coverage - for themselves and their counterparties - for contractual liability. Most general liability policies, which insure claims for bodily injury and property damage, exclude coverage for liability assumed under a contract, unless the liability either exists in the absence of the contract or was assumed in a defined “insured contract ...
European Commission imposes fines of €302m on participants What does this mean for you? The decision The European Commission has imposed fines totalling just over €300 million on the participants in a cartel involving the supply of underground and submarine high voltage power cables for important high voltage power cable projects in the EEA (including large infrastructure and renewable energy projects such as offshore wind farms) ...
On April 22th, 2014, the Federal Electricity Commission announced an international public bid, which number is not yet assigned, for the construction of 5 gas pipelines. These five gas pipelines will have capacity, amongst all of them, for 5 thousand 650 million cubic feet per day, according to the following: The largest of the pipelines, which will go from El Encino in Chihuahua to La Laguna between Coahuila and Durango, shall be 423 kilometers in length and 1,500 million cubic feet per day ...
On March 28, 2014, the White House released its Climate Action Plan Strategy to Reduce Methane Emissions. The oil and natural gas sectors are clearly in the cross-hairs for reductions. The report indicates the oil and natural gas sector was responsible for 28 percent of man-made methane emissions in 2012—second only to the agricultural sector, which accounts for 36 percent of emissions ...
On the market since the late 1990s, cyber insurance is nothing new. But as the Internet spreads deeper into people's lives, cyber risks continue to grow and evolve well past simple data loss or compromise ...
The Constitutional Court has confirmed a decision of the Western Cape High Court that section 44 of the Land Use Planning Ordinance is unconstitutional and invalid, thereby closing off the ability of developers and objectors to appeal to province to overturn and replace unfavourable rezoning, subdivision and departure decisions made by local authorities ...
When the National Environmental Management: Waste Act, 59 of 2008 (“NEMWA”) came into operation, in July 2009, the operation Part 8 of Chapter 4 (the “Contaminated Land Provisions”) was deferred to a later date. In terms of a recent government gazette, [1] the Contaminated Land Provisions will now come into operation on 2 May 2014 ...
This paper is a virtual, international roundtable discussion of recent developments in environmental law, including developments pertaining to sustainability and energy development. The questions and answers include a discussion of recent greenhouse gas permitting developments in Texas, the role of sustainability in project development, measures for a corporation to take to become sustainable, hot issues in the environmental area, and the environmental impact of fracking. 4 ...
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently released a proposed rule on the definition of “waters of the United States” under the Clean Water Act. If enacted, the rule could create significant new hurdles for real estate development projects that are near streams or wetlands by effectively removing permitting authority from state agencies and establishing federal oversight by the EPA and the Corps ...
On January 16 last, the Supreme Court of Canada refused to grant leave to appeal by Lombard following a judgment rendered on June 20, 2013 by the Ontario Court of Appeal.1 This decision deals with the issue of overlapping excess and umbrella policies. THE FACTS In January 1995, an apartment building was destroyed by fire. Six people died and many others were injured ...
The Minister of Trade has promulgated Regulation No 04/M-DAG/PER/1/2014 on 11 January 2014 which lists: 1 - 186 refined and processed mining products which are restricted to be exported (Attachment I of the regulation), such as metallic minerals, non-metallic minerals and rocks (including silver, gold and copper which contain certain levels of certain mineral elements) ...
The release of the second installment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth Assessment Report on March 31, 2014, provoked the usual calls for urgent and immediate action in response to climate change, including in particular at the international level in the form of a new climate treaty built upon domestic regulatory regimes.1 Irrespective of whether these calls for action are overly strident or carefully measured, the law plays a central role ...
In terms of section 29 of the National Environmental Management: Air Quality Act 39 of 2004 (“NEMAQA”), which provides for pollution prevention plans: “(1) the Minister of Environmental Affairs (the “Minister”) may: (a) declare any substance contributing to air pollution as a priority air pollutant; and (b) require persons falling within a category specified in the notice to prepare, submit to the Minister or MEC1 for approval, and implement pollut
On March 20, 2014, the Supreme Court of Canada granted Réjean Hinse leave to appeal a decision involving an action in damages he brought against the federal authorities, represented by the Attorney General of Canada. In 1964, Mr. Hinse was wrongly convicted of taking part in an armed robbery and ordered to serve fifteen (15) years in prison. He was acquitted by the Supreme Court of Canada in 1997, thirty-three (33) years later. After he was acquitted, Mr ...
