A global public health emergency was declared by the World Health Organization on 30 January 2020 as a result of the spread of the new virus COVID-19. The virus was later classified as a pandemic on 11 March 2020. As a result, it is important guard against any negative impact of the events relating to COVID-19 on ongoing energy licensing processes and on the energy market as a whole, particularly in the light of Decree-Law 172/2006 of23 August (“DL 172/2006”) ...
The European Commission has released the long-awaited proposal for a directive on corporate sustainability due diligence. As expected following the resolution approved by the European Parliament on 10 March 2021, the implications for companies are many and will have an impact on their organisation and the way they conduct themselves. The directive also affects the companies and other organisations they have commercial relations with ...
New biodiversity net gain (BNG) requirements are set to be enforced in November 2023, giving developers and the wider real estate industry less than 12 months to prepare. The legislation will require all new developments in England, bar a few exceptions, to deliver at least 10 per cent BNG – impacting commercial and residential developers. The requirements form part of the Environment Act 2021, which received Royal Assent in November 2021 ...
The year 2023 was marked by the further strengthening of control over transactions involving the sale of Russian assets owned by “unfriendly” foreign entities, as well as over Russian strategic companies. As for antimonopoly regulation, after several years of discussions and revisions, the fifth antimonopoly package was adopted, and a number of precedent-setting cases were considered. Please see below for more details about the key developments and highlights of 2023. 1 ...
The U.S. Supreme Court creates a test for when discharges to groundwater trigger NPDES permitting requirement, but its failure to include a bright line will make it difficult to predict whether a particular situation meets that test ...
Many environmental impact reports and negative declarations will breeze through analyses of a development project’s impacts on cultural resources ...
(Antelope Valley Groundwater Cases, JCCP No. 4408 (3/16/21))[1] After twenty-two years, the protracted proceedings in the Antelope Valley groundwater adjudication resulted in a settlement and court-approved "physical solution." A physical solution equitably allocates available water under California's laws governing water rights. The physical solution in Antelope Valley limited pumping to balance the overdrafted aquifer with the available native safe yield ...
Key Points The Third Appellate District in Stanford Vina Ranch Irrigation Co. v. State found that the State Board could promulgate emergency drought regulations and issue curtailment orders necessary to protect threatened fish ...
Earlier this year the Borgarting Court of Appeal rendered its judgment in Gassled, a case of major importance for the upstream Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) industry, natural gas buyers in Europe; and the Norwegian government, as resource owner and NCS regulator. If the judgment becomes final and binding, it will benefit the European gas supply. However, it may be a rude awakening for institutional investors in NCS infrastructure ...
On the 4th March 2021, the Seventh Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union issued its decision on an important matter related to the breach of ambient air quality legislation by the UK government (European Commission v. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, c-664/18). This case is only one among several others filed by the Commission against EU Member States, including France, Italy, Bulgaria and Hungary ...
On March 26, 2012, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals (“the Court”) vacated and remanded EPA’s disapproval of Texas’s request for approval of the minor source standard permit for pollution control projects (“PCP”) as part of its air quality state implementation plan (“SIP”). The Court’s reasoning may also affect other pending disputes between EPA and Texas regarding air quality permitting and other issues ...
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 ...
In December of 2018, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) released their much-anticipated draft proposed rule to re-write the definition of “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) (“2018 Rule”). The definition of WOTUS establishes the scope of agency jurisdiction over waters and wetlands under the Clean Water Act (CWA) ...
Federal and state occupational safety and health regulations require employers to record and report certain work-related injuries and serious illnesses, including work-related fatalities and in-patient hospitalizations. While Cal/OSHA has stated that the common cold or flu are exempt from reporting and recording requirements, even if the employee became ill at work, this exemption does not apply to COVID-19 ...
In their March 3, 2020 Law 360 article, our colleagues, Rob Patterson and Shu-Shu Wong, commented on the trend of certain buyers evaluating the feasibility of invoking force majeure as an excuse for not performing their purchase obligations under their liquefied natural gas long-term sale and purchase agreements (LNG SPAs) due to the COVID-19 outbreak ...
The COVID-19 pandemic and the sweeping government action to curtail its effects across the globe has disrupted global supply chains and may continue to do so for quite some time. These constraints will strain project development timelines across the renewable energy industry ...
First and foremost, our collective priority is, and should remain, human health and safety. As local, state, and federal government take action to help limit the spread of COVID-19, we are monitoring the rapid developments of this fast-moving news cycle and COVID-19’s impacts on renewable energy markets. Many open questions remain regarding the impact of COVID-19 in North Carolina – particularly the impact on businesses ...
The negative pricing for West Texas Intermediate oil (“WTI”) on Monday has raised alarm bells for many of our clients in the exploration and production and midstream industries. This article will clarify the issues for these companies and explain the forces at work that have created this situation. The root cause of the current dilemma arises from the dramatic drop in demand starting with the onset of the COVID-19 virus on the United States ...
On 8 March 2020, Saudi Arabia initiated a price war with Russia which has caused a major fall in the price of oil. This is disastrous for an industry that had only just recently recovered from the 2014 crash and companies are now looking at how to best get through another difficult downturn ...
The Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021 is being expedited through the legislative process. It will provide for extensions to a number of time limits, including for the passing of development plans. Importantly however it will also allow for extensions, or additional extensions, to existing planning permissions to allow projects be completed. Planning permissions have a fixed duration, usually five years ...
On November 27, 2020, the Federal Official Gazette published Resolution No. 50, by means of which the National Mining Agency (“ANM”) amends Resolution No. 46/2020, which suspended the deadlines of certain procedural and material acts and the extension of mining titles. According to the new wording, the period of certain procedural and material acts as well as the tacit approval by the Agency is suspended from March 20, 2020 to December 31, 2020 ...
On January 22, 2021, the Federal Official Gazette published Resolution No. 55, by means of which the National Mining Agency (“ANM”) amends Resolutions No. 28/2020 and 46/2020, which deal with the suspension of deadlines of certain procedural and material acts under its competence, and the extension of the terms of mineral titles, due to the current COVID-19 pandemic ...
The National Mining Agency (“ANM”) amends Resolutions No. 28/2020 and 46/2020 due to the current COVID-19 pandemic and revokes Resolution No. 55/2021. On June 30, 2021, the Federal Official Gazette published Resolution No. 76, by means of which the National Mining Agency (“ANM”) amends Resolutions No ...
November 15, 2022 By: Gwenneth O’Hara, Lillian Rafii, and Jonathan Kendrick On November 10, 2022, the CPUC issued its long-awaited and reworked net energy metering (NEM) “3.0” proposed decision on a successor tariff. The origin of California’s NEM tariff was to incentivize Californians to install on-site renewable energy resources such as rooftop solar to serve part or all of their own electrical requirements ...
