The US Environmental Protection Agency recently issued its final Clean Power Plan, which establishes historic new standards and emission guidelines intended to reduce carbon pollution from power plants. The plan will affect power market participants across the generation base and will present significant compliance challenges, as well as market opportunities, should it ultimately survive expected legal challenges and come into force.
The Supreme Court has vacated a ruling affirming a former Enron executive's conviction under the 'honest services' component of the federal ban on mail and wire fraud. The decision curbs a widely used prosecutorial tool by limiting the scope of the statute to fraud involving bribery and kickbacks, but does not eliminate ambiguity as to who is covered and the source of the underlying fiduciary obligations.