Inflation Reduction Act
NAS Recognizes Utility of Performance Based Rules
In October 2017, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) issued a pre-publication report on “ Designing Safety Standards for High Hazard Industries .” Sponsored by PHMSA (and many years in the making), the Report focuses on oil and gas pipelines...
EPA Issues Proposal to Repeal the Clean Power Plan
On October 10, 2017, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt formally announced that he had signed a proposed rule to repeal the Obama EPA’s controversial Clean Power Plan (CPP). This proposal is the first formal step toward repealing the CPP and the...
New Tactics, Same Result: Local Efforts to Regulate Hydraulic Fracturing Continue to Falter Despite New Approaches to Regulation
Despite numerous attempts in recent years by local governments to regulate oil and gas activities at the municipal level, recent developments in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Colorado signal a continued trend favoring states’ authority to regulate these issues as matters of...
The Lobby Shop: Replacing the Clean Power Plan featuring Jeff Holmstead
Josh and Liam discuss the latest developments at the EPA regarding the Obama Administration's Clean Power Plan (CPP) with our Bracewell colleague Jeff Holmstead, former assistant administrator of the EPA for Air and Radiation and current head of Bracewell's Environmental...
VAT In the UAE - What Your Business Needs to Do
The UAE will introduce value added tax (“ VAT ”) at the rate of 5% from 1 January 2018. The basic principle underpinning the introduction of VAT is to further improve the economic base of the UAE. This is a...
DOT Requests Comments on Regulatory Review
The Department of Transportation formally requested public comment on existing rules and “other agency actions,” including but not limited to guidance documents and policy statements, that are good candidates for repeal, replacement, suspension, or modification without compromising safety. This request...
U.S. Futures Exchanges Disciplinary Actions Report - September 2017
The Bracewell U.S. Futures Exchanges Disciplinary Actions Report is a monthly report that provides summaries of certain disciplinary notices by U.S. exchanges during the prior month. The report has a particular focus on notices potentially relevant to energy commodities and...
FERC Improves Treatment of Passive Tax Equity for Transaction Approvals
On October 4, 2017, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) issued an order clarifying that it will not treat certain tax equity interests in public utilities or public utility holding companies as voting securities for purposes of transaction approval requirements...
Federal District Court Vacates BLM’s Postponement of the Waste Prevention Rule
On October 4, 2017, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued a decision vacating the Bureau of Land Management’s (“BLM’s”) June 15, 2017 notice that indefinitely postponed compliance dates for sections of BLM’s Methane and Waste...
The Lobby Shop: Budget on the Brain
Welcome to October! Tax reform is the name of the game in Washington right now, so today Josh sits down with new PRG team member and tax policy expert Liam Donovan to break down the process, budget challenges, the latest...
The Bid Submission Process - Some Practical Tips
This overview provides some practical tips on managing the process of submitting a competitive bid tender as well as some suggestions to avoid common pitfalls. Also included are some best practices that will help make a complex and demanding task easier.
Will Supreme Court Find Constitutional Problems With ALJs?
Recent federal circuit court of appeals decisions have cast doubt on the constitutionality of the use of administrative law judges (ALJs) in adjudicative proceedings. ALJs are widely used to adjudicate disputes and enforcement actions in regulated industries, including in administrative...
DOE Proposes FERC Action to Preserve and Compensate Baseload Generation Resources
Pursuant to its authority under Section 403 of the Department of Energy Organization Act, on September 29, 2017, the Department of Energy (“DOE”) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NOPR”) directing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) to take prompt...
Proposed Treasury Regulations Bring the Public Notice Requirements into the 21st Century
Recently released proposed regulations (the “Proposed Regulations”) relating to the public notice and approval requirements for private activity bonds (the “Public Approval Requirement”) – sometimes referred to as the TEFRA approval – streamline the process and recognize the prevalence of...
Statute of Limitations Bars FERC Penalty in Preeminent Market Manipulation Case
On Friday, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California handed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or “Commission”) a significant defeat by concluding that FERC’s action against a former trader of Barclays Bank PLC accused of participating...