Energy & Sustainability

Prior to recessing for the Thanksgiving holiday, the House and Senate both took several votes and introduced numerous pieces of legislation on energy and environment related issues last week.

On November 17, 2014, Halliburton Company (“Halliburton”) announced plans to acquire Baker Hughes, Inc. (“Baker Hughes”) for $34.6 billion.  Halliburton and Baker Hughes are two of the world's largest oilfield services companies, providing drilling, formation evaluation, reservoir consulting and related services to oil and gas producers. 

President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping jointly pledged November 11 in Beijing to make significant CO2 reductions in the next two decades. The United States will reduce its net greenhouse gas emissions by 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, accelerating the pace of reductions already planned by 2020.

In a recent Law360 article, Mintz Levin members Stephen Gulotta and Kenneth Koch discuss several alternative strategies for PE sponsors looking to exit investments that do not attain the originally projected levels of growth and profitability.

Republicans gained control of the Senate last Tuesday, and, with Republicans picking up several House seats as well, Congress rests in their hands. The question now becomes: can D.C. govern?

Many energy innovators were in attendance at the Cleantech Open Northeast 2014 Innovation Expo and Awards Gala on October 28th.

The New England Women in Energy and the Environment's 2014 Annual Meeting and Second Annual Autumn Extravaganza will be on Thursday, November 6, 2014 at Blu.

On October 1st, Mintz Levin, New England Clean Energy Council (NECEC), and Grant Thornton hosted “On Your Mark, Get Set, IPO,” a panel discussion concerning recent trends in the public offering market for cleantech growth companies.

In the latest edition of Clean-Tech Law Alert published by Clean Edge, Mintz Levin lawyers and members of our ML Strategies government relations team provide insights on following topics.

Congress has recessed until after the November elections, and we turn our attention this week to energy and climate issues on the Administration and international fronts.

Congress is in Washington this week for an intense few days before recessing until after the November elections.

Congress returns to Washington this week for a two-week session before leaving again to campaign in advance of the November elections. The House will vote on a fairly clean continuing resolution on Thursday, with the Senate to debate the funding measure shortly thereafter.

On August 8, 2014, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued Notice 2014-46 in response to continued industry requests for clarification on several aspects of the renewable electricity Production Tax Credit (PTC) under section 45, or the energy Investment Tax Credit under section 48 in lieu of the PTC (ITC election).

Last week, a bipartisan coalition in the House of Representatives voted in favor of HR 5120, the Department of Energy Laboratory Modernization and Technology Transfer Act of 2014.

For several years, solar arrays utilizing silicon photovoltaics have been central to driving the exponential growth of installed domestic solar capacity.

Mintz Levin would like to congratulate our client, Admirals Bank, on partnering with SunPower Corp., the second largest U.S. solar-panel maker, to establish an innovative solar power loan funding program.

Mintz Levin is proud to have hosted the U.S. Department of Energy's (DoE) 2014 National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition. For the third consecutive year, Mintz Levin hosted the first day of the two-day competition at its Washington, D.C. office.

Early this week, the Department of Energy awarded $20 million in funding to ten new projects aimed to advance hydrogen production and delivery technologies. The selected projects will in some way aid the widespread commercialization of various fuel cell technologies, most notably including fuel cell electric vehicles.

The Department of Energy’s National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition, designed to build a network of student-focused business creation across the country, is currently ongoing in Washington, D.C. Mintz is pleased to host the first day of the competition at its Washington, D.C. office on June 11.

Following an ongoing dispute over amendments, the Senate fell short May 15 of the 60 votes needed to limit debate on the Senate Finance Committee-approved tax extenders package (H.R. 3474).