On March 8-9, 2018, a bespoke group of approximately 200 leading entrepreneurs, investors and advisors focused on deploying and commercializing cutting edge technologies gathered in Monte Carlo from across the globe for the 11th annual CleanEquity® Monaco Conference.  Complementing other plenary sessions and emerging company presentations, the conference initiated a new feature — Covington…

On April 6th, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued a Proposed Decision authorizing pilot testing for autonomous vehicles (AVs) in California. This action follows up on the California DMV’s permitting rules for AVs in California, which would have allowed driverless testing and deployment permits to issue as early as April 2 of this year.…

Whilst the recent case of R v ATE Truck & Trailer Sales Limited provides a reminder to litigants that judges are not bound by parties’ agreed bases of plea, it also serves to point out that judges will not necessarily be correct to depart from them.

Facts of the case

The defendant allowed a scrap metal dealer, Mr Price, to occupy part of its site in Wolverhampton to dismantle old trucks and trailers. On 21 February 2013, the roof of the curtain-sided trailer that Mr Price was working on fell and struck him on the head causing fatal injuries. The investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (“HSE”) following the incident concluded that Mr Price’s method of work was unsafe. Although the defendant had various safety procedures and systems, employed health and safety consultants and maintained a significant number of risk assessments, there was no written health and safety risk assessment for dismantling curtain-sided trailers when carried out by the defendant’s own employees. However, the defendant considered that it had no responsibility for Mr Price’s activities. The defendant had made no effort to advise Mr Price of the method adopted by the defendant for carrying out the same activity. Mr Price had his own defined area for work within the defendant’s premises and the defendant had no expertise for the work that Mr Price carried out, as he had been undertaking this work for the defendant since the late 1990s.

Under the Natural Gas Act (NGA), FERC certificates the construction and operation of pipelines to transport natural gas in interstate commerce if they are “required by the present or future public convenience and necessity.”  For almost two decades, FERC has used a 1999 policy statement’s guidelines to evaluate whether new pipelines meet that statutory standard. …

The US Supreme Court has denied review of a July 2017 Sixth Circuit ruling that revived two federal class action lawsuits seeking redress for plaintiffs alleging injury as a result of the lead-tainted water crises in Flint, Michigan.  In addition to ensuring that the Flint, Michigan water crises remains active in the national conversation, the Supreme Court’s decision leaving in place the Sixth Circuit’s reasoning paves the way for drinking water claims that might otherwise be preempted by the Safe Water Drinking Act (SWDA). Practically, the decision may result in additional monetary relief for Flint residents.

In 2012, California, the Obama Administration, and major US automakers agreed (2012 Agreement) to nearly double fuel efficiency fleet-wide by 2025, raising the average fuel economy of new cars and light trucks to more than 50 MPG, or roughly 36 MPG in real-world driving. As part of the 2012 Agreement, a midterm review was scheduled to take place for April 2018 to determine the attainability of the final requirements. However, just prior to Obama leaving office in January 2017, US EPA announced it had completed its midterm review with no changes to the 2012 Agreement based on a record supported by a 2015 National Academies study and on the federal agency’s finding that the 2025 standards could be met with both technical and economic feasibility.

In February 2017, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (Alliance), representing the majority of the automakers who agreed to the higher standards in 2012, wrote a letter requesting US EPA to withdraw its premature midterm determination. In this letter, the Alliance argued that “EPA and NHTSA in 2012 took the unprecedented step of setting joint greenhouse gas and fuel economy standards over a decade in advance for MY 2022-2025 vehicles,” and that US EPA’s commitment to a robust midterm evaluation was abrogated when it issued its final determination early, and without coordinating development of the standards with NHTSA. In March of 2017, US EPA and NHTSA granted the Alliance’s request and announced their intention to reopen midterm review and reconsider the Obama Administration EPA’s final determination that new standards were unnecessary. In response, California’s Air Resources Board (CARB) announced it would nonetheless move forward with the greenhouse gas emissions standards set forth in the 2012 Agreement.

It may be much harder to fill property in New Jersey.  In a recent decision, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection v. Bleimaier, 2018 WL 1513152, (App. Div. 2018), the New Jersey Appellate Division in effect has held that the placement of more than five-yards of fill material always changes the existing topography and…