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For more than twenty years, the North American Free Trade Agreement (“NAFTA”), and later, the United States‑Mexico-Canada Agreement (“USMCA”), have facilitated cross-border trade and investment among the United States, Mexico, and Canada through the elimination of virtually all financial barriers to trade.

Darren Tucker and Jason Powers discussed recent antitrust developments in the energy sector and what lies ahead for companies in 2025.

The incoming Trump administration suggests a potential return to more traditional levels of antitrust enforcement for energy industry mergers and a departure from novel theories of harm seen under current Federal Trade Commission leadership.

On October 17, 2024, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) issued a Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“Supplemental NOPR”) that proposes a reduction to the currently effective index by one percent.

New and additional bonding requirements for certain companies operating on the Outer Continental Shelf (“OCS”) will take effect in June as a result of a recent rulemaking.

On March 22, 2024, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued additional guidance in respect of the “Energy Community Bonus” in Notice 2024-30 (the “Notice”), which provides two key updates: (1) offshore wind farms have two new ways to meet the Nameplate Capacity Attribution Rule, and (2) adding new industry codes for evaluating employment rates related to fossil fuel industries.

This program will highlight what you need to know about how these new rules intersect, new compliance and enforcement risks, and how to plan now for operations and upcoming transactions.

V&E lawyers discussed recent antitrust developments in these industries — including federal regulators’ merger and non-merger enforcement priorities and state & private litigation — and what lies ahead.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (“FERC” or “Commission”) October 18, 2023 Open Meeting (the “October Open Meeting”) and October 27, 2023 issuance of rehearing of remand orders for the Texas LNG Brownsville LLC and joint Rio Grande, LLC and Rio Bravo Pipeline Company, LLC projects provide further evidence of the re-solidification of the Driftwood Compromise we discussed in our earlier update following the September 21, 2023 Open Meeting (the “September Open Meeting”).

On October 25, 2023, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard the Liquid Energy Pipeline Association’s (“LEPA”) challenge to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (“FERC”) rulings, including two rehearing orders, from its most recent five-year review of the oil pipeline rate index (Nos. 22-1257 and 22-1258).

At the Open Meeting held on September 21, 2023, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or “Commission”) approved four of the six Natural Gas Act (“NGA”) certificate orders for interstate natural gas pipelines and liquefied natural gas (“LNG”) terminals that were abruptly struck from the agenda at the July Open Meeting.