Mexico’s package of energy reform laws (“Energy Law” – nine new laws and amendments to twelve existing laws) became a reality with its promulgation on Monday, August 11, 2014. With the enactment of the Energy Law, Mexico finally joins the international mainstream of energy resource development and management. This alert addresses only the oil and gas aspects of the reform ...
Action: On August 20, 2014, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) on Risk Management, Financial Assurance and Loss Prevention.1 In a news release announcing the ANPR, BOEM described the ANPR as instituting a “dialogue” with industry and others on how to improve its risk management program by “modernizing” its current regulations, which are approximately 20 years old.Comments on the ANPR are due October 20, 2014 ...
The Polish Parliament is working on a bill known as the “Landscape Act,” which is intended to introduce effective mechanisms for protecting the landscape. But an unintended consequence could be to block the construction of aerial masts, power lines and wind turbines, rather than merely regulate their location. The Sejm is currently working on a bill proposed by the President of Poland entitled the Act Amending Certain Acts to Strengthen Tools for Protection of the Landscape ...
Those who build wind turbines are obliged to compensate their neighbours for noise pollution, visual interference and other disadvantages of the turbines. The issue of compensation is usually settled before the wind turbines are erected, and the amount does not necessarily reflect the actual noise levels or indeed the reductions in property value that usually accompany the erection of the turbines ...
This morning, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (“DEP”) filed a proposed interpretive rule (the “Interpretive Rule”) with the West Virginia Secretary of State’s office implementing, in part, the recent Aboveground Storage Tank Act (the “AST Act”), which was enacted in response to the January 9, 2014 event that contaminated the water supply of approximately 300,000 West Virginia residents across nine counties ...
Recently, there have been indications that the Israel Tax Authority (the "ITA") is strengthening its ties with foreign tax authorities and banks in order to obtain information on Israelis who hold unreported bank accounts overseas ...
The Law 1450 of 2011 by means of which it was issued the National Development Plan for the period 2011-2014 provided in its article 112 the creation of a Single Registry of Marketers of Minerals ("RUCOM" by its acronyms in Spanish), which is managed by the National Mining Agency ("ANM" by its acronyms in Spanish) in order to control the marketing of minerals in Colombia ...
Those words were written nearly a decade ago and described, in brief, the complicated and confusing legal world of wills, estates and succession. The Report from which that quote comes recommended a wholesale overhaul of this area of the law. The B.C. Legislature, various interest groups and the legal community have been working on such a revision to this area of the law since ...
The approval of amendments to the Tax Code and the creation of new taxes have caused upset and criticism among business sectors in El Salvador, accusations that they will affect competitiveness and a better economic performance, and lead to an increased cost of living ...
Despite diminishing enforcement budgets for state and federal agencies, a combination of technological and regulatory developments could significantly increase risk of enforcement activity in coming months and years. In particular, EPA is actively pursuing three key enforcement initiatives that will boost the likelihood that companies will face enforcement actions under the Clean Air Act ...
Based on a recent decision in West Virginia’s 3rd Judicial Circuit, which includes Doddridge, Pleasants and Ritchie counties, the use of litigation in the form of partition suits may be more problematic than it otherwise has been for oil and gas operators attempting to acquire property interests to create efficient drilling units for their planned wells. The Court’s decision (described below) denied a mineral interest owner’s request to partition by sale under W. Va. Code § 37-4-1 et seq ...
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (“BSEE”) issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“ANPR”) on September 24, 2014 seeking comments on improving safety for operations related to helicopters, helidecks and aviation fuel systems on fixed offshore facilities. Comments on the ANPR are due November 24, 2014. The ANPR was issued just days after BSEE and the U.S ...
Environmental laws should not be understood as a limit to economic growth and development but as a crucial part of economy: the wise use of natural resources means greater benefit from raw materials and lower costs for inputs. At the same time, the quality of life for Brazilian citizens should be enhanced by an effective program of environmental sustainability ...
In yet another indication of the increasing prominence of water use issues in BC, the Supreme Court of British Columbia recently upheld the practice of the BC Oil and Gas Commission to grant recurrent short-term water approvals for oil and gas activities under the Water Act ...
Recent press speculation suggests that Entrepreneurs Relief may be a victim of its own success and could be restricted or even removed. For the individual entrepreneur and for SME Britain more generally such a change would be little short of disastrous.Entrepreneurs Relief has been a key source of oxygen for our anaemic economy over recent years ...
If a Code Section 501(c)(3) organization (501(c)(3)) or State or local government (collectively Exempt Entity) hospital or other facility financed with tax-exempt bonds has “too much” private business use of such facility, the bonds will lose their exempt status. Various arrangements, including partnerships or management agreements with non-exempt persons can constitute private business use ...
More than 30 earthquakes jolted the area in and around the City of Azle, Texas - 20 miles north of Fort Worth - last November through January. In response to citizen concerns, the Texas House Committee on Energy Resources created a Subcommittee on Seismic Activity, to investigate whether there was a link between earthquakes and increased oil and gas production and disposal wells ...
On October 31, 2014, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized its approval for the State of Texas to issue greenhouse gas (GHG) permits for new and modified facilities. In response to legislation enacted in the 2013 Texas Legislative session, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) had submitted a state implementation plan to replace the existing federal program with TCEQ-issued GHG permits ...
In recognizing the serious humanitarian crisis and potential health ramifications to the population of the United States and the World, the IRS announced on Thursday, October 29, 2014, in a pair of Notices that the Ebola outbreak occurring in the Western Africa countries of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone is a qualified disaster for certain purposes of the Internal Revenue Code ...
Offsite drilling is becoming increasing prevalent in the Eagle Ford Shale in Texas. Consequently, many in the industry were closely following a dispute between two neighboring operators in the Eagle Ford Shale area in which one operator opposed a neighboring operator’s plans to use offsite drilling. On October 29, 2014, the San Antonio Court of Appeals ruled that the plaintiff lease owner, Lightning Oil Co ...
Introduction: As noted in our earlier article, foreign investors in Australian entities may be unaware that in some circumstances the Australian Taxation Office can assess them for tax on gains made from the disposal of their Australian investments. In particular, a foreign investor will be liable to Australian tax where they make a gain on the disposal of taxable Australian property ...
It has long been known that Greenland possesses vast amounts of mineral resources. But due to climate changes, resulting in a rapid meltdown of ice caps in the Arctic regions, it is now getting easier to discover and exploit the mineral resources. The costs of exploring and exploiting minerals continue to decrease, and many experts believe that Greenland will become the next frontier within the mining industry ...
Professionals dealing with secured lending in Belgium have been looking forward for some time to the new Belgian law of 11 July 2013 on security interests over movable goods (“Wet van 11 juli 2013 tot wijziging van het Burgerlijk Wetboek wat de zakelijke zekerheden op roerende goederen betreft en tot opheffing van diverse bepalingen ter zake” / “Loi du 11 juillet 2013 modifiant le Code civil en ce qui concerne les sûretés réelles mobilières et abrogeant diverses dispositions en cette matiè
A number of tax figures are adjusted each year for inflation; for 2015, the most significant adjustments for estate and gift taxes are: Unified estate and gift tax exclusion amount. For gifts made and estates of decedents dying in 2015, the lifetime exclusion amount will be $5,430,000 individually or $10,860,000 per couple (up from $5,340,000 or $10,680,000 per couple for 2014). Generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax exemption ...
On December 2, 2014, the Yukon Supreme Court struck down the Yukon government’s Peel watershed regional land use plan because of the government’s failure to follow the process for developing that plan under final agreements (modern treaties) with the Na-Cho Nyak Dun, Tr’ondek Hwech’in and Vuntut Gwichin First Nations ...
