In FAA Updates Guidance on Obstruction Lighting the Federal Aviation Administration recently released guidance on obstructions that may impact the National Airspace System, such as tall buildings, energy and electricity infrastructure, and communications towers. The FCC provides updated guidance for builders and developers on the requirements for marking and lighting any structure. Jennifer and Ken encourage developers…
In Five Things You Need to Know About the Extension of the ITC/PTC, Pillsbury partner Tom Morton discusses the 2016 Consolidated Appropriations Act (H.R. 2822) and the extension of federal income tax credits for solar, wind and certain other renewable energy facilities. Photo: Chris Potter, 3D Green Footprint, Taken December 7,…
In U.S. Repeals Longstanding Ban on Export of Crude Oil, my Pillsbury colleagues Dan LeFort, Paul Marston, Tom Campbell and I discuss the President’s recent signing of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016, an Act that funds the Federal government through fiscal year 2016, and its repeal of the 40-year ban on the…
In IRS Provides Additional Guidance on Treatment of Same-Sex Marriages under Benefit Plans, Pillsbury partner Peter Hunt and senior law clerk Benjamin Asch discuss the IRS’s guidance in IRS 2015-86, in which provides guidance to sponsors and administrators of employee benefit plans regarding the application of the U.S. Supreme Court’s…
In their alert “Reverse CEQA” Reversed, California Supreme Court Rejects CEQA Analysis of Impacts of the Environment on the Project, Pillsbury attorney David Farabee discusses the California Supreme Court’s recent rejection of a requirement of so-called “reverse CEQA” analysis, concluding that “CEQA does not generally require an agency to consider…
Public and private contractors take note of new law in Nevada that limits retainage for both public and private works contracts to five percent. Previously, for public works contracts, a public body undertaking a public work was permitted to withhold as a retainage at least five percent from progress payments made to a contractor…
In New Legislation Threatens to Further Erode Market Share of Non-Trade Union Contractors in California, Pillsbury attorneys Chris Rodriguez, Rob James, John Heisse, Andrew Bluth, and Marissa O’Connor discuss two new laws that go into effect in January 2016 that are expected to change the face of various public and…
Developers subject to the Federal Power Act (FPA) should carefully consider the implications of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit’s recent opinion on the scope of the “municipal preference” under Section 7(a) of the FPA. The Court, in Western Minnesota Municipal Power Agency, et al., v. FERC,…
The “Conflicts Minerals” rule was enacted, with very little debate, as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. This rule places new regulatory requirements on the nation’s financial system in the wake of the 2008 economic emergency. To many observers, the most troublesome aspect of the…
Early this year, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed a bill requiring assessors and contractors in the mold remediation industry to be licensed and their workers properly trained, effective January 1, 2016. The bill was amended later in the year, but the date it goes into effect remains the same. The new…