On March 15, 2020, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued formal guidance to combat the spread of the coronavirus by recommending against gatherings of 50 or more people for the next eight weeks (CDC guidance), which includes nearly every office building in America. Thus, began the most…
In “Real Estate Operations in the Coronavirus Era,” colleagues Rachel B. Horsch, Aimee P. Ghosh, Brian E. Finch and Amanda G. Halter highlight ten issues to assess risk and mitigate the COVID-19 outbreak for property owners and landlords.
On March 6, 2019, the South Carolina Administrative Law Court entered an order in Colonial Pipeline Co. v. South Carolina Department of Revenue, No. 18-ALJ-17-0443-CC, in which it held that a pipeline company’s assets may qualify for a property tax exemption for pollution control equipment of industrial plants under S.C.…
On February 24, 2020, the Supreme Court heard the oral arguments in the case of U.S. Forest Service, et al. v. Cowpasture River Preservation Association, et al. On December 13, 2018, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that the Forest Service was not authorized by the…
There are more than 11,000 wells, nearly 600 platforms and 24,000 km of pipeline network on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS). It is estimated that by 2025 more than 220 oil and gas production fields and their structures will be decommissioned. In his recent opinion piece, “Turning oil rigs into…
Carbon-reduction initiatives have begun to increasingly target the construction industry, particularly in light of data showing that buildings generate up to 40% of global annual greenhouse gas emissions. While the Federal Green New Deal remains stalled in Congress and states have been slow to spring into action, a number of…
It’s been an active month in terms of recent environmental and administrative law cases decided by the federal appellate courts. Flood Control and the Endangered Species Act. On January 17, 2020, in Wildearth Guardians v. US Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit…
The Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee has released a “discussion draft” of the committee’s climate bill. The legislation is over 600 pages long, but the Committee has also released a summary of this legislation, which is entitled the Climate Leadership and Environmental Action for our Nation’s Future…
January has been a busy month for the Fifth Circuit, which has issued a number of significant rulings. Building the Border Wall. On January 8, 2020, in El Paso County, Texas, et al. v. Donald J. Trump, et al., a divided panel of the court quickly granted a stay of…
Any strategy for the successful deployment of small modular reactors (SMRs) must thoroughly consider the current trends affecting the burgeoning market for SMRs. In 2019, the three major trends shaping this market were the large number of SMR designs, interest in SMRs in both mature and emerging markets, and factors…