Vanessa Allen Sutherland Stepping Down as Chair of U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board

Posted on: May 21, 2018 By: Kevin Collins
Vanessa Allen Sutherland just announced that she is resigning from the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB). President Barack Obama nominated Sutherland to be Chairperson, and she was confirmed in August 2015. Ms. Sutherland's resignation will be effective in June. During her three years as Chair, Ms. Sutherland helped the agency to close 12 incident investigations, and she was a tireless advocate for the importance of the Board's mission. The CSB investigates the root cause of industrial chemical incidents and advocates for the implementation of safety recommendations to...
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Environmental
Government
Incident Response and Investigations

FERC Proposes Reforms to Hydropower Recreational Use Requirements

Posted on: May 18, 2018 By: Seth Lucia, Dave Poe, Kevin Voelkel
On May 17, 2018, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to eliminate the Licensed Hydropower Development Recreation Report , or FERC Form No. 80 (Form 80) and revise certain public notice requirements (“Hydro Recreation NOPR”). For licensees, the proposed elimination of Form 80 would save the expense of compliance with a regulatory requirement that the Hydro Recreation NOPR itself concedes is otherwise provided to FERC pursuant to license conditions or other requirements. The Form 80 requirement dates back to 1966 when FERC amended its...
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FERC
Renewable Energy

U.S. Futures Exchanges Disciplinary Actions Alert: April 2018

Posted on: May 9, 2018 By: David Perlman, Michael Brooks, Bob Pease, Ryan Eletto, Josh Freda
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 is not intended to be a comprehensive review of each and every notice issued. Instead, the report is intended to provide market participants, and compliance personnel in particular, with illustrative examples of rule violations and to bring to light enforcement trends across the exchanges. The disciplinary notices cited in...
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Commodities
Organized Markets

DOJ ENRD Memo Blog Series: Enforcement Principle 2: “Enhancing Cooperative Federalism”

Posted on: May 7, 2018 By: Kevin Collins, Jason Hutt, Ryan Eletto, Kevin Voelkel
On March 12, 2018, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resource Division (“ENRD”), Jeffrey H. Wood, issued a U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) memorandum titled “Enforcement Principles and Priorities” (the “Wood Memorandum”. The Wood Memorandum identified seven enforcement principles for the ENRD. We discussed portions of the Wood Memorandum in our April 19th and April 30th posts. Today, we will discuss the second principle, “Enhancing Cooperative Federalism.” Enhancing Cooperative Federalism The third enumerated principle in the Wood Memorandum discusses...
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Environment
Energy
Enforcement
National Energy Law

DOJ ENRD Memo Blog Series– Enforcement Principle 1: “Adhering to the Impartial Rule of Law”

Posted on: April 30, 2018 By: Kevin Collins, Jason Hutt, Ryan Eletto, Kevin Voelkel
On March 12, 2018, a U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) memorandum was issued by Jeffrey H. Wood, DOJ’s Acting Assistant Attorney General (“AAG”) for the DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resource Division (“ENRD”) titled “Enforcement Principles and Priorities” (the “Wood Memorandum”), as noted in our April 19, 2018 post . The Wood Memorandum mentioned seven enforcement principles for the ENRD. The first principle, which will be the subject of this post, is “Adhering to the Impartial Rule of Law.” This principle appears to signal a tightening in the government’s approach to environmental...
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Environmental
Energy
Enforcement
National Energy Law

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