July 29, 2015
Proposed settlement in Canadian oil train derailment case
In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in the volume of crude oil being shipped by rail from North Dakota’s Bakken Shale to oil refineries throughout the United States and Canada – and with that increase, several train derailments resulting in oil spills or explosions.
May 1, 2015
DOT announces final rule to strengthen safe transportation of flammable liquids by rail
On April 17, 2015 the Department of Transportation (DOT) issued a series of emergency orders designed to help improve the safety of transporting crude oil by rail. In its news release announcing the new orders, the DOT stated, “Immediately slowing trains to 40 mph, increasing inspections for wheels and related…
May 1, 2015
Tax strategies: Can a wealthy, sophisticated investor be defrauded by his lawyers?
Jones Swanson spends a good bit of its commercial litigation group’s energy focused on a particular niche of litigation over tax strategies which have been found by the Internal Revenue Service to have been abusive. No matter how many times we are involved in these cases on behalf of those…
April 7, 2015
Injection wells, fracking, and earthquakes
There are two ways that oil and gas activity can cause earthquakes. The first is the use of hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”), the high pressure underground explosive activity that can itself provoke lands to shake. The second is the use of waste injection wells, which can trigger geologic faults to shift.
