More Real Estate Coverage

Expert Analysis

• As Superfund Turns 40, Courts Are Still Puzzling Over It

  

  The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act just turned 40, but a review of several Superfund cases from 2020 demonstrates that courts are still regularly confronted with novel questions and issues related to the law, says Peter Keays at Hangley Aronchick.

• How To Reliably Value Income-Producing Real Estate

  

  Amid the pandemic-fueled surge in tax appeals and loan workouts, using the income approach to calculate the present worth of a property's future income provides the most reliable indication of value and does not rely on subjective adjustments, say Mark Dunec at FTI Consulting and Anthony DellaPelle at McKirdy Riskin.

• IRS Continuity Safe Harbor Will Aid Renewable Projects

  

  Recent Internal Revenue Service guidance expanding the continuity safe harbor to protect tax credit eligibility for qualified offshore and federal land renewable energy projects will provide certainty for developers who often face significant construction and permitting delays, say attorneys at Mayer Brown.

• Buyers May Be Wary Of Climate-Driven PG&E Asset Sale

  

  PG&E's plan to sell its Pleasant Creek natural gas storage field will allow the utility to avoid decommissioning and remediation costs, and it aligns with regulators' desire to see the company move in a climate-friendly direction — but buyers may be leery of such assets for the same reasons, say Vidhya Prabhakaran and Patrick Ferguson at Davis Wright.

• NY Tax Talk: 2020 In The Rearview

  

  Craig Reilly at Hodgson Russ highlights New York City's and state's notable tax updates from the last year — many of them related to budget shortfalls due to COVID-19 — and wishes good riddance to 2020.

• Alaska Enviro Suit Shows Gov't Is A Tough Tort Defendant

  

  The Ninth Circuit's recent decision in Nanouk v. U.S. concerning environmental contamination near an Alaska military installation highlights the fact that discretionary government action that yields an unfortunate result does not necessarily give rise to a tort claim, says Brandon Matsnev at Manko Gold.

• Streamlining Power Transmission Siting To Help Renewables

  

  It can take years and cost millions of dollars to secure state regulatory approval for electric transmission system upgrades needed to facilitate clean energy development, so it is important for states to create abbreviated siting processes for projects with limited anticipated impacts, says Andy Flavin at Troutman Pepper.

• FERC Nod To Energy Storage As Transmission Has Caveats

  

  While the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recently approved the Midcontinent Independent System Operator plan to treat some electric storage facilities as transmission-only assets eligible for full cost-of-service rates, entities seeking similar approval will need to develop workable rules governing use of storage resources, say Mark Perlis and Bud Earley at Covington.

• EB-5 Ruling Shows Viability Of SEC Disgorgement Challenges

  

  In the first appellate decision applying the U.S. Supreme Court’s Liu decision, the Ninth Circuit recently reversed a large disgorgement award over an EB-5 visa scam in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Yang, demonstrating several ways companies and individuals facing investigations may be able to challenge SEC penalties, say attorneys at Cadwalader.

• 8th Circ. Ruling May Provide Relief For Bakken Debtors

  

  The Eighth Circuit’s recent decision that an oil and gas agreement provision requiring additional funds to participate in drilling a well was dischargeable in Slawson Exploration v. Nine Point Energy may aid debtors in the Bakken shale at a time when bankruptcy filings are expected to rise, say Isaac Griesbaum and Katherine Preston at Winston & Strawn.

• Trump Nationwide Permit Move Could Interrupt Pipeline Suit

  

  The Trump administration's proposal to revamp the nationwide permit program well ahead of schedule is clearly a response to recent litigation over the Keystone XL pipeline, and could moot those proceedings and force litigants to restart them, says Yvonne Hennessey at Barclay Damon.

• How Congress May Bail Out FERC On Tolling Orders

  

  The D.C. Circuit's recent ruling in Allegheny Defense Project v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission deals a major blow to FERC's use of tolling orders to forestall judicial rehearings, but Congress may soon come to the agency's aid, say Sandra Rizzo and David Skillman at Arnold & Porter.

• Market Rebound May Curb Securities Class Actions, Damages

  

  The stock market's dramatic recovery from its pandemic-prompted plunge may provide securities class action defendants an opportunity to rely on the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act’s rarely invoked bounce-back provision to ward off stock-drop claims, or sharply limit available damages, say John Schreiber and John Tschirgi at Winston & Strawn.