On October 15, 2012, IOGA-WV, the Independent Petroleum Association of America (“IPAA”) and five other state-level oil and gas associations filed suit in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA”) New Source Performance Standards (“NSPS”) promulgated for the oil and natural gas industry on August 16, 2012 ...
As Denmark is situated between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, the prevailing weather conditions suggest that wind power should constitute a major part of the country's total power production. While onshore wind turbines have dominated the Danish landscape for decades, offshore wind turbine parks have been erected in Danish waters in recent years ...
On October 26, 2012, three resolutions were adopted by the closed session of the 34th International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners and have been published on the conference website. Below we provide an overview of these resolutions ...
The Federal Attorney-General has released a Discussion Paper seeking comment on whether to introduce laws to make notification of data breaches by government agencies and large private sector entities mandatory in Australia. The Government is calling for submissions by 23 November 2012, asking what the triggers should be and what penalties should apply for failure to comply ...
B.C. Environment Minister Terry Lake and Energy, Mines and Natural Gas Minister Rich Coleman refused to issue an Environmental Assessment Certificate (“EAC”) to Pacific Booker Minerals Inc. for its proposed Morrison Copper/Gold Mine project near Smithers, at the headwaters of the Skeena River ...
Earlier this year, the Inquiry regarding Procurement Services published its opinion "The future for the Procurement Assistance". The Inquiry’s mission is to propose how procurement assistance should be coordinated in order to increase competence, availability, consistency and visibility for procurement market participants ...
BackgroundIndustrial activities are of great importance to Europe’s financial wealth. Industrial emissions, however, cause environmental pollution and industrial emissions constitute a major part of Europe’s total emissions to air, water and soil. Consequently, there is a need for regulation of industrial operations at an EU level.In view hereof the so-called IPPC Directive (Integrated Pollution Prevention Control) was adopted in 1996 ...
On October 1, 2012, changes in Regulation (2003:770) on government authorities’ electronic information exchange enter into force. The changes involve an obligation for a number of government authorities to implement e-commerce, and from May 31, 2013 handle all of their orders for supplies and services electronically. In this article Kristian Pedersen and Ingrid Sandstedt present the new rules ...
While the European Commission’s extensive modernization of the state aid rules proceeds, Sweden will have to wait for a national legislation regarding the application of the European Union’s state aid rules since the legislative process has been delayed. As case law from the Swedish courts show, Swedish administrative courts have to assess state aid cases by applying the Swedish Act on Local Governance ...
To enable a broader and more effective market for re-use of information collected by public sector bodies the EU decided in 2003 to introduce a common set of minimum rules regulating these questions. The rules contain amongst other things a limitation of how high the fee charged for public sector information may be calculated ...
Effective July 1st, 2012, the new revised Swedish legislation on bribery entered into force. The last time this area was more thoroughly revised was in 1977. The previous regulation was criticized for being both inaccessible and outdated. In 2009, the Swedish Government therefore appointed an Inquiry to review the provisions then in force, aiming to create a more modern legislation better adapted to its purpose ...
We live in a society that is obsessed with appearance, and studies show that many people equate appearance to success. While employers may not be aware of these studies, some are trying to control appearance in the workplace by imposing weight restrictions on job applicants or employees as a condition of employment.Whether these policies are permissible can only be answered with a “maybe ...
Even a cursory review of relevant news stories today reveals that hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) is one of the most hotly debated subjects in the energy sector. Both environmentalists and regulators are keeping concerns about fracking at the forefront of their agendas. Since late May of this year, there have been a number of key legal developments related to the issue that merit the attention of the oil and gas industry ...
As of January 1, 2013, Quebec and California will emerge as the first two Western Climate Initiative (WCI) Partners to create a carbon market that imposes binding targets on businesses identified as major greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters ...
The Supreme Court of Poland has held that recognition in Poland of French sauvegarde proceedings, which are covered by the EU’s Insolvency Regulation (1346/2000), is consistent with Polish public policy. The ruling was issued in cases involving a Polish company that sought protection against insolvency in France. The Supreme Court upheld the debtor’s argument that there was no basis for the lower courts in Poland to refuse torecognise the French proceedings ...
There have been two important developments in British Columbia’s wind energy sector in June. The first was the release of BC Hydro’s Draft Integrated Resource Plan (Draft IRP) for public consultation. The Draft IRP recommends building new clean generation resources to ensure sufficient future capacity within the system ...
Pursuant to statutory changes enacted in its 2011 Sunset Review, the TCEQ has created a website that allows companies and persons subject to its regulations to review the agency’s proposed compliance history rating, for a 30-day period prior to that rating being made available to the public ...
In what has been described as a “sweeping victory” for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a decision on June 26, 2012 in lawsuits that challenged various aspects of the Agency’s regulatory scheme for greenhouse gases (GHGs). EPA’s challenged actions stem from a decision by the U. S. Supreme Court in 2007 in the case of Massachusetts v ...
GOVERNMENT PUBLISHED PROPOSAL TO CHANGE THE INSOLVENCY REGIME Insolvency proceedings are currently governed by the Insolvency and Corporate Recovery Code approved by Decree-Law 53/04 of 18 March (referred to here by its Portuguese initials ‘CIRE’). From its entry into force to date, this legislation has been subject to five legislative amendments ...
On the 10 May 2012, the Swedish parliament enacted a permanent exemption to the Swedish Public Procurement Act (2007:1091) (“LOU”) for the direct award of contracts to affiliated companies.[1]Parliament also decided to enact an option for municipalities and county councils to delegate the competence to make decisions in relation to public procurement procedures to central purchasing bodies ...
The Supreme Court makes clear that a party that has started to clean up contamination caused by another party is also deemed to be a business operator. This gives rise to joint and several liability for the original contamination. The fact that remedial work was intended to reduce the environmental impact is of no importance. Background A company which was later incorporated into JM Värmdöstrand (“JM”) operated a casting works from the 1940s to the 1980s on a site in Oxelösund ...
Several of the players which regularly participate in public procurements are aware of the extended right to make an application to the court to have procurement cases reviewed. Almost a year has passed since the Supreme Administrative Court extended the right for suppliers to appeal in procurement cases to encompass a greater range of situations ...
