Nuclear Energy Gets a Much-Needed Boost
August 05, 2024 —
The Editorial Board - BloombergPresident Joe Biden, as you’ve no doubt heard, has had a rough few weeks. Yet on Tuesday, he signed a bill into law that could well prove transformative for America’s energy future. Here’s hoping — whatever happens in November’s election — that more progress lies ahead.
Known as the Advance Act, the bill seeks to remedy some long-standing flaws in nuclear-energy regulation. To reach net zero, the world will need to roughly double its nuclear capacity by 2050, according to the International Energy Agency. Yet constructing new nuclear plants in the US is expensive, time-consuming and encumbered by red tape. Partly as a result, the industry has stagnated: The share of electricity generated by nuclear is projected to decline to about 12% by 2050, from about 18% today.
The Advance Act should help reverse that trend. As a start, it makes useful reforms to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, allowing the agency to hire more staff, reduce licensing fees, speed application processing and ease the burden of environmental reviews. It also makes a small but consequential change to the commission’s mission, requiring it — after decades of focusing on potential threats — to also consider the vast public benefits of nuclear energy when making regulatory decisions.
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The Editorial Board, Bloomberg
Colorado Hotel Neighbors Sue over Construction Plans
October 02, 2015 —
Beverley BevenFlorez-CDJ STAFFNeighbors of the Sky Hotel in Aspen, Colorado, filed suit against the owners “alleging that the construction project will impede access to their units and steal their airspace,” reported the Aspen Daily News Online.
The problem, the plaintiff suit alleges, is that the Sky’s plan would close the “east-west alley,” which is also used by the condo complex: “Owners, renters and guests mainly use the alley, which is configured for one-way traffic entering on Durant Avenue and exiting at Original Street, to access their condos in the Chaumont, says the 12-page complaint filed by local attorney Jody Edwards.”
The plaintiffs are demanding that the plan be voided or at least require the issues in the suit to be addressed. They are also seeking attorney and other costs.
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Home Prices Up in Metro Regions
October 30, 2013 —
CDJ STAFFHousing prices in the largest metro regions beat expectations, rising 12.8% in August as compared to a year before. Analysts were expecting weaker increases; instead these have been the fastest increases in seven years.
The metropolitan area with the largest increase was Las Vegas, where houses increased in price by 29.2%. Three California regions — San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego — also saw increases of greater than 20%.
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Los Angeles Considering Census of Seismically Unstable Buildings
August 27, 2013 —
CDJ STAFFIn 1994, after the Northridge earthquake lead to the deaths of 57 people and $2 billion in damage, the Los Angeles City Council considered making a list of buildings that were vulnerable to failure in earthquakes and mandating that they be made seismically sound. The measure did not come to pass.
Tom LaBonge, a member of the council, is seeking to finally get that inventory done. According to the Los Angeles Times, thousands of buildings in Los Angeles were constructed with a ground floor level that is insufficient to support the rest of the building in the event of an earthquake. These “soft-story” buildings can be reinforced to better resist earthquakes, but first they need to be identified.
Owners of apartment buildings worry about the cost of the retrofits, suggesting that if the city is going to come up with mandatory retrofits, they should also “help property owners pay for it,” as Beverly Kenworthy, the executive director of the Los Angeles division of the California Apartment Association told the Times.
San Francisco recently did require retrofits, finding about 3,000 apartment buildings that were at seismic risk. Still, San Francisco doesn’t seem to have moved any faster than Los Angeles, as they were responding to the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989, seven years before the Northridge quake.
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Wildfire Threats Make Utilities Uninsurable in US West
August 12, 2024 —
Mark Chediak - BloombergTrinity Public Utilities District’s power lines snake through the lower reaches of the Cascade Range, a rugged, remote and densely forested terrain in Northern California that has some of the highest wildfire risk in the country. But for several years, the company has been without insurance to protect it from such a threat.
Trinity’s equipment was blamed for causing a 2017 wildfire that destroyed 72 homes and three years later its insurer, a California public agency called the Special District Risk Management Authority, told the utility that it would no longer cover it for fires started by its electrical lines. Trinity could find no other takers.
The utility’s exposure comes as wildfires are already flaring up across the US West in what could be a dangerous and prolonged fire season.
“If a fire were to start now that involved one of our power lines, it would likely bankrupt the utility,” said Paul Hauser, general manager of the local government-owned utility that serves about 13,000 rural customers in Trinity County, 200 miles (322 kilometers) north of Sacramento. That’s because without insurance, a lawsuit could put the utility on the hook to pay for damages to private homes and businesses, which could easily top the utility’s annual revenue of about $16 million.
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Mark Chediak, Bloomberg
We've Surveyed Video Conferencing Models to See Who Fits the CCPA Bill: Here's What We Found
August 10, 2020 —
Shaia Araghi & Kyle Janecek – Newmeyer DillionWorldwide closures as a result of COVID-19 have resulted in an extreme surge in video conferencing use. This spike in use has also resulted in increased concern about the privacy of these video conferencing applications, including a class action lawsuit against one of the applications: Zoom. Because of this, we took a deeper look into the privacy policies of six prominent video conferencing applications and created a chart showing each video conferencing application's compliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act. Reviewing these materials will provide an awareness of the deficiencies within the Privacy Policies, which can help you become more well-informed about your own rights, and more knowledgeable about any deficiencies in your own business' privacy policy. If these widely-used and widely-known companies can have deficiencies, it is an important way to re-examine and fix these issues in your own.
To determine this, we reviewed the CCPA's twenty requirements for compliance, including: (1) the existence of a privacy policy, (2) required disclosures of information regarding the existence of rights under the CCPA, (3) instructions on how to exercise rights, and (4) providing contact information.
Here are the top 5 discoveries from our review:
1)
No videoconferencing applications address authorized agents. This makes sense, as the treatment of authorized agents were just laid out in the recently finalized regulations. This is a reminder to businesses to utilize these regulations when setting up compliance measures to ensure there is no risk in missing out on requirements like this, which will still be required and enforced by the Attorney General.
2)
Three platforms (WebEx, Skype, and Teams) have separate tabs and pages detailing privacy policies, and don't necessarily have a single unified and simple policy. Because of the accessibility requirements, this means that the privacy policy may not be readily accessible on the business's website, and may open companies to arguments that the entirety of their policy is non-compliant if key portions are hidden or otherwise inaccessible. Therefore to eliminate this concern, keep your policy unified, simple and in one location for ease of viewing.
3)
None of the platforms address information relating to minors under the age of 16, which is notable as some of these platforms have been used for online education. The final regulations outline different treatment for minors from ages 13 to 16, and for minors under the age of 13. As a result, privacy policies focused on compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) may be insufficient as it only applies to those under 13 years old.
4)
While all of the platforms state that no sale of information occurs, two platforms (Zoom and GoToMeeting) go above and beyond to explain the right to opt-out of sales. This is especially great as the CCPA permits that no notice needs to be given if no sale occurs. By taking this extra step, Zoom and GoToMeeting explain to their users that they have additional rights, which may be necessary as these platforms are also used by other entities, which may collect or otherwise use information collected from a videoconference meeting.
5)
Only one platform (Wire) does not give instructions on how to delete information. The CCPA regulations still require that information regarding instructions on how to delete information be given. The lack of instructions does not relieve Wire from its obligations, and similarly situated businesses may find themselves in a position where they will have to comply with a consumer request, in any form, as the regulations require that a business either comply, or list the proper instructions on how to make the request.
Download the Full Breakdown
To learn more about our findings and how the video conferencing companies stacked up against the CCPA, visit: https://www.newmeyerdillion.com/ccpa-privacy-policy-compliance-videoconferencing-platforms/. We hope this serves as a reminder to everyone to read the privacy platforms for the services you use and update your company's privacy policies to comply with the most recent regulations, as none of these services are currently in complete compliance, and it is only a matter of time before enforcement begins.
Shaia Araghi is an associate in the firm's Privacy & Data Security practice, and supports the team in advising clients on cyber-related matters, including compliance and prevention that can protect their day-to-day operations. For more information on how Shaia can help, contact her at shaia.araghi@ndlf.com.
Kyle Janecek is an associate in the firm's Privacy & Data Security practice, and supports the team in advising clients on cyber related matters, including policies and procedures that can protect their day-to-day operations. For more information on how Kyle can help, contact him at kyle.janecek@ndlf.com.
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Environmental Roundup – April 2019
May 06, 2019 —
Anthony B. Cavender - Gravel2GavelBesides showers, this April brought a number of notable new environmental decisions issued by the federal courts. Before your mind turns to May and its flowers, here’s a summary:
1.
DC Circuit. On April 23, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit decided the case of State of New York, et al. v. EPA. In the Clean Air Act amendments of 1990, the Congress established the Northeast Ozone Transport Region, composed of the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, the District of Columbia and a portion of Virginia. Recently, several of these states requested EPA to expand this region to include the “upwind states” of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, West Virginia, and the remaining portions of Virginia. Doing so would assist the “downwind” states in complying with EPA’s 2008 Ozone standard. EPA rejected this request, which was then appealed to the DC Circuit by the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont. Because of its unique properties, ozone created by emissions in the upwind states can be transported to the downwind states, thus allegedly hampering their ability to cope with EPA ozone standards. The court agreed that EPA has the authority to expand the Northeast Transport Ozone Transport Region, but it also has the ability to exercise its reasonable discretion not to do so. In addition, the agency’s decision to rely instead on the remedies available to it in in the Clean Air Act’s “Good Neighbor” provision was reasonable and adequately justified, and the court accordingly upheld the agency’s decision. The court also noted that other remedies may be available to the downwind states, just not this one.
2.
DC Circuit. The Court also decided on April 23, 2019 the case of Air Transport Association of America v. Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA held that the payments made by the City of Portland’s airport’s utility city charges for offsite stormwater drainage and Superfund remediation was not an “impermissible diversion” of airport revenues or in violation of the “Anti-Head Tax Act,” which is codified at 49 USC Section 40116(b) and which prohibits collecting a tax on persons travelling in air commerce. Here, the charges are assessed against the airport for the use by the airport of the city’s water and sewage services. The Superfund assessment is based on the fact that the Willamette River which runs through downtown Portland could make the city a Superfund potentially responsible party, and the cty is assessing all rate payers—including the airport—a Superfund assessment. The airport is federally funded and is owned and operated by the Port of Portland, and the Port pays a combined sewer, stormwater /water bill with multiple line items including these contested items. The court notes that federal law, in particular 49 USC Section 47107(k)(2), authorizes airport revenues to be used for the operating costs of the airport receiving federal funding, and the FAA could reasonably determine that these general expenses are authorized airport “operating costs” even though the city services are provided outside the boundaries of the airport.
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Anthony B. Cavender, PillsburyMr. Cavender may be contacted at
anthony.cavender@pillsburylaw.com
Certain Private Projects Now Fall Under Prevailing Wage Laws. Is Yours One of Them?
November 21, 2022 —
Nancy Cox - Construction ExecutiveFor the last few years, New York State Labor Law has required that all contractors overseeing public development projects pay their workers the prevailing wage rate, which includes a regulated hourly rate for wage and benefits. Fast forward to 2022, the requirements of Section 224-A are extending to private projects costing more than $5 million where 30% or more of the financing for the construction costs was obtained from public sources like state or local funding.
There are a number of forms of financing that qualify as public funding, and its important for developers to understand exactly how these are defined under the new law. Public funding includes any indirect or direct payment from government authorities, savings from fees, tax credits or payments in lieu of taxes, loans from public entities and more.
In order to provide further clarity, the law also clearly defined certain project exemptions to the new rule. First, affordable housing projects will not be affected, along with historic rehabilitation projects or small renewable energy projects. Also, projects for established non-profit companies receive an exemption as long as the company reports gross annual revenues less than $5 million. Other exemptions include projects for schools under 60,000 square feet and those funded by the Urban Development Corporation’s Restore New York's Communities Initiative.
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Nancy Cox, Construction Executive, a publication of Associated Builders and Contractors. All rights reserved.
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