More Real Estate Coverage
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March 28, 2025
DC Circ. Tosses Green Groups' Challenge To La. Gas Pipelines
A D.C. Circuit panel on Friday rejected an environmental challenge to a Tellurian subsidiary's $1.5 billion plan to construct parallel, roughly 30-mile gas pipelines in Louisiana, ruling that federal energy regulators reasonably weighed greenhouse gas impacts and market demand in approving the project.
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March 28, 2025
5th Circ. OKs Largest US Crude Export Terminal's Expansion
A Fifth Circuit panel found the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dotted its i's and crossed its t's before it greenlighted an expansion of the largest crude oil export terminal by volume in North America, finding in a Friday opinion the agency adequately studied the project's effects.
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March 28, 2025
US Can Weigh In On Osage Reservation Boundary Dispute
An Oklahoma federal judge will allow the United States to weigh in on a dispute between the Osage Nation and the state's tax commission over the tribe's reservation boundaries after the federal government said a U.S. Supreme Court ruling at the crux of the litigation is of interest to the government.
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March 27, 2025
Lawmakers Reintroduce Bill For Georgia's First National Park
Four U.S. lawmakers from Georgia have reintroduced a federal act that would establish the Ocmulgee Mounds and surrounding areas as the state's first national park, saying the bipartisan bill's introduction follows years of lobbying by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.
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March 27, 2025
Whistleblowers Seek Bigger Cut Of Tetra Tech Deal With Navy
Seven whistleblowers told a California federal judge on Thursday they deserve a cut of the total $97 million settlement the government inked over allegations a Tetra Tech unit billed the Navy for radiation remediation that was not done, and not a smaller share covering only the government's False Claims Act claims.
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March 27, 2025
Western Leaders Oppose Cuts To Public Land Protections
More than 300 local Western leaders have urged the Trump administration and Congress to reject the sale of public lands in the latest budget resolution package passed by the U.S. House, saying they must oppose attempts to reduce the size of national monuments.
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March 27, 2025
Pa. Coal Co. Gets OK For $23.5M Asset Sale In Ch. 11
A Pennsylvania bankruptcy judge on Thursday approved the sale of assets of bankrupt Corsa Coal Corp. for $23.5 million, overriding arguments against including litigation claims in the sale and for earmarking proceeds for environmental cleanup.
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March 26, 2025
Sotomayor Urges Caution On Nondelegation Doctrine Revamp
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor cautioned her colleagues during oral arguments Wednesday against using a challenge to the Federal Communications Commission's administration of a broadband subsidy program as a way to resurrect the long-dormant nondelegation doctrine. Several conservative justices, however, seemed willing to disregard that admonition.
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March 26, 2025
Court Can't Hear Everglades Water Dispute, 11th Circ. Says
Sugar companies challenging the stand-alone use of an Everglades reservoir component that will allegedly reduce water supplies can't raise the dispute in court because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hasn't made a final decision on its operation, according to an Eleventh Circuit opinion.
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March 25, 2025
NJ Judge Upholds Mansion Tax On Sale Of Doomed House
A New Jersey company that bought a property for $4.7 million after obtaining approval to demolish an uninhabitable farmhouse on the land and use the property for industrial purposes owes the state's so-called mansion tax on the purchase, the state Tax Court ruled Tuesday.
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March 25, 2025
Contractor Drops $1.1M Bond Dispute Against Liberty Mutual
A Delaware-based plumbing and HVAC company has withdrawn its federal suit claiming that a general contractor and Liberty Mutual improperly withheld $1.1 million in payments for work the company completed on a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers elementary school project.
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March 24, 2025
Ore. Tribe Backs Hydro Utility's Eminent Domain Bid At Falls
The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians has asked an Oregon federal judge to approve a utility company's attempt to condemn five acres of public land for the operation of a hydroelectric project, saying another tribe believes wrongly that condemnation would eliminate its fishing platform.
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March 24, 2025
Investor Says It Was Conned Out Of $42M In Real Estate Deals
A Las Vegas investment company alleged that four businessmen fleeced it out of more than $42 million by convincing the company to invest in a Washington real estate project that collapsed when the developer was convicted of rape and also luring the firm into another bad deal under false promises.
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March 21, 2025
Md. Nonprofit's Property Used As Home Isn't Exempt
A Maryland property owned by a nonprofit isn't exempt from property tax, because it's used as the founder's home and not mainly for charitable purposes, the state tax court affirmed.
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March 20, 2025
Property Owner Demands Appraisal Of $10.5M Hail Claim
A Tennessee property owner asked a federal court Thursday to order a Travelers unit to participate in an appraisal of its hail damage claim, alleging the insurer denied coverage even though an "independent evaluation" of the owner's damages estimated that the hail damage exceeded $10.5 million.
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March 20, 2025
Conn. AG Sues Builder, Companies For State Park Clear-Cut
A real estate builder and two of his companies have illegally clear-cut multiple acres of Connecticut state park land, installed fixtures including a basketball court and a guesthouse without permission and blocked public access to the area, according to an enforcement action brought by the state attorney general's office.
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March 20, 2025
La. Court Reinstates Cancer Center's Property Tax Appeal
The Louisiana Tax Commission must hear a refund claim brought by a cancer center that said it mistakenly paid assessed property taxes despite being exempt, a state appeals court ruled, finding the center had a right to appeal the assessment.
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March 20, 2025
ND Directs Lawmakers To Consider Tribal Land Tax Study
North Dakota directed state lawmakers to consider studying issues related to the taxation of land owned by enrolled tribal members who reside on Native American reservations under a bill signed by the governor.
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March 19, 2025
Interior Department Transfers 680 Acres To North Dakota Tribe
The Spirit Lake Nation and the U.S. Department of the Interior are hailing the recently completed transfer of 680 acres back to the North Dakota tribe — land taken by the federal government in a mid-19th-century territory treaty — as a change that will benefit the tribe and that the tribe has pursued for decades.
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March 19, 2025
10th Circ. Says 'Corner-Crossing' Hunters Didn't Trespass
A Tenth Circuit panel has ruled that Wyoming hunters who used an A-frame ladder to cross over private property to access public lands didn't trespass, finding an 1885 American frontier law protects the public's right to "corner-cross" and access public lands that are otherwise enclosed by private property.
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March 18, 2025
Tribe Members Complicate Tesoro Pipeline Row, 8th Circ. Told
Tesoro High Plains Pipeline Co. has urged the Eighth Circuit to deny landowning tribe members' bid to intervene in the company's lawsuit challenging the federal government's right-of-way trespassing claims against it, saying that the United States adequately represents their interests and that they would only complicate the case.
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March 18, 2025
Real Estate Duo Closes Boutique To Join Howard & Howard
A pair of attorneys operating a Chicago-based real estate-focused boutique recently closed the firm's doors and have joined Howard & Howard's office in the Windy City.
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March 14, 2025
Mich. Panel Revives Hangar's Property Tax Challenge
The Michigan Court of Appeals revived a company's argument that it is exempt from a city's tax on a hangar it leased from a regional airport authority, saying the state Tax Tribunal should have required the municipality to prove that a tax statute applied to the company.
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March 13, 2025
Watchdog Says Federal Landlord Used Prohibited Chinese Drone
The U.S. General Service Administration's Office of Inspector General on Thursday pressed the Public Buildings Service to tell one of its contractors to stop using a drone manufactured by a Chinese company that the U.S. Department of Defense has identified as a potential national security threat.
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March 13, 2025
Ore. Tribes Challenge Utility's Eminent Domain Bid
An Oregon Indigenous community is fighting a bid by Portland General Electric Co. to condemn five acres of public land for the maintenance and operation of its hydroelectric project, arguing that the move is a pretext to eliminate its ceremonial fishing platform at the state's largest waterfalls.
Expert Analysis
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'Waters Of US' Meaning May Get 'Major Questions' Scrutiny
After the U.S. Supreme Court's invocation of the so-called major questions doctrine in its recent decision in West Virginia v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the court is primed to use this concept to restrict federal wetlands protections under the ambiguous term "waters of the United States," says Peter Alpert at Ropes & Gray.
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Cos. Should Engage With EPA On PVC Hazard Designation
A pending petition to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to classify discarded polyvinyl chloride products as hazardous waste could have wide-ranging and unanticipated effects due to the ubiquity of PVC products — so potentially regulated industries should provide information to the EPA on the economic impact of such a move, say attorneys at Kilpatrick.
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Lessons From FERC New England Capacity Market Settlement
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's recent enforcement settlement with Salem Harbor Power Development illustrates the consequences for power market participants if they fail to report accurate information to independent system operators and regional transmission organizations, say attorneys at K&L Gates.
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Fed. Circ. Ruling May Curb Gov't Contract Procedural Suits
The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Zafer Construction v. U.S. contains important takeaways for federal contractors and contracting officials on determining whether a request for equitable adjustment is a timely claim for a final decision, and will hopefully avert costly procedural litigation, say Aron Beezley and Sarah Osborne at Bradley.
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How Justices' EPA Ruling Thwarts The Will Of The People
By reversing a long-standing presumption in favor of executive branch interpretations of ambiguous statutes, the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling limiting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's powers to fight climate change blocks the will of the popular majority that elects the president, exacerbating our political system's dysfunction, says Jonathan Martel at Arnold & Porter.
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High Court's New EPA Ruling And Its Long-Term Implications
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in West Virginia v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will change the legal landscape in a number of ways — including constraining future climate regulations that may be advanced by the Biden administration and states, while providing litigants a powerful new administrative law precedent to challenge all kinds of agency rules, say attorneys at Beveridge & Diamond.
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Capturing Carbon In California: Opportunities And Challenges
California is well situated to play a leading role in carbon capture and sequestration, but there remain barriers to widespread CCS deployment — including policy and regulatory hurdles, and the concerns of potentially affected communities, say Brian Israel and Samuel Pickerill at Arnold & Porter.
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EPA Ruling Signals Arrival Of 'Major Questions Doctrine'
While the specific subject of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in West Virginia v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was how the EPA may regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act, the ruling's lasting legacy will be the elevation of the so-called major questions doctrine, which could constrain federal regulatory authority in many areas, says Allison Wood at McGuireWoods.
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New P3 Authority Means Opportunities For Colo. Agencies
A recently passed Colorado law expanding public-private partnerships changes state-level project finance and infrastructure dramatically, allowing virtually all state agencies to avail themselves of P3 benefits including cost and schedule savings, sharing of risk, and access to innovation and private sector efficiency, say Gregory Johnson and Peter Gould at Squire Patton.
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Texas Infrastructure Act And Renewables Projects: 1 Year In
A year into implementation of Texas' Lone Star Infrastructure Protection Act, Jennifer Pier at Husch Blackwell discusses how renewable energy project developers, owners and investors planning projects in Texas can incorporate LIPA-related provisions into transaction and financing documents.
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How Cos. Can Track Infrastructure Act Projects — And Funds
As federal funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act begin to flow to thousands of infrastructure projects across the nation, savvy contractors can determine which types of funded projects are likely to offer the best opportunities, and then follow the flow of federal money into those projects, says Nena Lenz at Fredrikson & Byron.
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Cos. Should Comment Now On New Offshore Wind Areas
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's recent calls for information regarding potential wind energy areas along the Central Atlantic and Oregon coasts give developers an important opportunity to participate in creating a defensible environmental review process that will enable project development, says Andrew Glenn at Husch Blackwell.
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How FERC Proposal Will Guide Clean Grid Development
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's major new proposal on regional electric transmission planning and cost allocation appears likely to substantially reshape how the transmission system is built out to accommodate the clean energy future, say attorneys at Day Pitney.