Insights

Washington, D.C. – July 12, 2022: Lisa Henneberry joins Crowell & Moring as a partner in its Energy practice, bringing more than three decades of experience helping clients navigate and mitigate risk in the global energy sector. Her practice focuses on the development, construction, and operation of conventional and alternative energy projects, including power generation, fuels, and related feedstock, capacity, and offtake arrangements, as well as major industrial development.

Doha – February 2, 2022: LexisNexis Middle East has shortlisted Crowell & Moring’s Denise McLaughlin in the Construction Lawyer of the Year category of the Women in Law Awards in the Gulf Cooperation Council region.

On August 23, 2023, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released its final rule and notification of final guidance addressing implementation of the Build America, Buy America Act (BABA) provisions enacted with the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which requires the use of domestic iron, steel, manufactured products, and construction materials in infrastructure projects supported with federal financial assistance.  The final rule goes into effect October 23, 2023, and applies to federal awards for infrastructure projects awarded after November 15, 2021.  We previously reported on OMB’s February 9, 2023 proposed guidance here.

Last week, the Department of Transportation (DOT) announced nearly $60 billion of funding available to states through DOT formula grant programs in fiscal year (FY) 2023.  States may use these funds, authorized under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, to support critical infrastructure, including roads, bridges, and environmental and safety improvements.  The FY2023 grant funds represent a substantial increase from FY2021.  In particular, states will see an increase in grant funds for highway and bridge projects:

On April 20, the Biden Administration published final changes to the rules governing how federal agencies consider the environmental impacts of their proposed actions, returning to previous standards that required consideration of indirect and cumulative effects of a proposed action. Although the rule changes may appear minimal, encompassing modifications to two specific regulatory subsections and updates to two definitions, the changes could be significant in how agencies consider impacts on environmental justice communities or effects of climate change from proposed federal actions, including federal agency authorizations and approvals for energy, transportation, and other infrastructure projects. 

Please join a panel of Crowell & Moring’s Environmental and Natural Resources Group for a webinar as they conduct a review of recent federal and state government actions concerning environmental justice (“EJ”). 

Please join Crowell & Moring for an A to Z summary of the Infrastructure Bill on November 18, 2021 from 2 pm to 4 pm when professionals from across the firm will digest and explain the significance of the recently passed Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill (BIB). The Crowell & Moring team will walk through the amount, description, timeline and pathways for funding related to coming infrastructure projects related to (1) roads, bridges and tunnels; (2) power infrastructure and clean energy transmission; (3) electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure; (4) electrification of vehicle fleets; (5) rail; (6) airports; (7) ports and waterways; and (8) environmental remediation and related new regulatory issues. The Crowell & Moring team will also walk through the infrastructure funding mechanisms and explain how federal or state government contracts, and/or public-private partnerships, related to this new $1 trillion in infrastructure investments might take place from late 2021 through 2022. 

Just as with the introduction of the internal combustion engine vehicle more than a century ago, the success of EVs will depend on the buildout of infrastructure required to power them: high-speed charging stations. President Biden’s infrastructure package calls for the federal government to provide $174 billion in incentives for the purchase of EVs, but even more importantly, for the construction of 500,000 fast chargers across the nation by 2030. This webinar will focus on: