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Inflation Reduction Act
Ohio Issues Emergency Rules on Underground Injection Control Activities, Effective Immediately
Companies that own and operate Class II disposal wells in Ohio will now have to comply with tougher standards when using deep injection wells for the underground disposal of brine and other wastes, a regulatory change spurred by findings that...
USPTO Opens a Satellite Patent Office in Dallas
On July 2, 2012, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced the selection of Dallas, Texas as the location for one of its satellite patent offices, and it was the sole southern city chosen. The Dallas satellite office...
Dual Air Permitting Scheme in Texas Lives On, For Now
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling on June 26, 2012, upholding the EPA's various rulemakings regulating greenhouse gases (GHG) is a significant blow to the numerous oil and gas, electric generating, chemical, and refining companies operating in Texas that...
TCEQ "Compliance History" Rule Change to Affect Regulated Facilities in Texas
At the direction of the Texas Legislature, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has for the last decade provided "compliance history" regulations that generate a score for each regulated facility in the state based generally on the number and...
Federal Circuit Passes Torch From Juries to Judges for Willful Infringement Determinations
Just in time for the London 2012 Summer Olympics, the Federal Circuit, in Bard Peripheral Vascular v. W.L. Gore & Assocs., 1 passes the torch from juries to judges on willful infringement determinations in patent litigation. With an en banc...
How to Feel About the "Big Reveal": Roundup on the Land Rush for New gTLD Applications
The curtain has been drawn back and the applicants and applied-for strings of new gTLDs have taken center stage this week. Ultimately, the "Big Reveal" exposed what many had long speculated, namely, a fair number of large brand name businesses...
UPDATE: PJM Provides Its View
Internal Bilateral Transactions: Regulatory Risk & Confusion Reign As explained in our alert "
D.C. Federal Court Upholds DOL 2010 Flip-Flop on Exempt Status of Mortgage Loan Officers Under FLSA
Revised Ruling Awards Overtime to Loan Officers; May Affect More Than 250,000 Employees Nationwide Employers: beware when relying on Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division Opinion Letters. Even better, don’t rely on them. In the latest in a series...
What's the Deal with the "Big Reveal"? Getting Exposed to the List of New gTLD Applicants and Applications
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has identified June 13, 2012 as the target date for publication of the full list of applied-for new generic top-level domain names (gTLDs), as well as pertinent information regarding Applicant names...
SEC Makes Technical Amendment to Definition of "Covered Associates" Under "Pay to Play" Rule of the Advisers Act
On June 22, 2011, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted rules implementing certain provisions of Title IV of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act), including proposed amendments to Rule 206(4)-5, or the "pay-to-play" rules...
Internal Bilateral Transactions: Regulatory Risk & Confusion Reign
Internal Bilateral Transactions (IBTs) are bilateral transactions occurring between market participants within a Regional Transmission Organization (RTO) market. While these transactions have differing names in various RTOs ( IBTs in PJM, ISO-NE, and NYISO; Financial Schedules in MISO; Inter-SC Trades...
Supreme Court Confirms that Credit Bidding is Alive and Well
Today, the Supreme Court of the United States issued its much awaited decision in RadLAX Gateway Hotel, LLC v. Amalgamated Bank , 566 U.S. ______ (2012). The noteworthy decision resolves any uncertainty surrounding a secured creditor’s right to credit bid...
Electricity Buy/Sells: Permitted, Prohibited, or Simultaneous Exchanges?
Recently the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission clarified the regulatory status of a type of energy transaction called a "Simultaneous Exchange." However, at the same time, the Commission has created ambiguity in a related area. That is, whether electricity Buy/Sell transactions...
Priority Access on Interconnection Lines: FERC's Policy Under Review
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recently issued a Notice of Inquiry seeking comment on whether and/or how FERC should revise its current policy concerning priority rights on interconnection lines that connect generators to the larger transmission grid. Comments are due...
Judge Rules NLRB's Fast-Track Election Rule Invalid
On May 14, 2012, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, a 2011 Obama appointee to the Washington, D.C. District Court, found invalid the National Labor Relations Board's recent rule that would speed up union elections, because the NLRB enacted it without...