DoD "Green"-Lights Massive Investments in Renewable Energy
Client Alert | 1 min read | 08.20.12
On August 7, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released a long-awaited Multiple-Award Task Order RFP for up to $7 billion in renewable and alternative energy contracts under which contractors will "finance, design, build, operate, own and maintain" green power facilities and sell power to military bases and other federal installations, opening up new opportunities for contractors in the emerging renewable energy marketplace. The RFP comes one day after DoD and the Department of the Interior jointly announced a separate renewable energy push, dubbed the "Renewable Energy Partnership Plan," which will make millions of acres of public lands and offshore areas currently managed by DOI available for utility-scale solar and wind projects, in support of the DoD's goal that each of the military services deploy 1 gigawatt of renewable energy by 2025.
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Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.21.25
On November 7, 2025, in Thornton v. National Academy of Sciences, No. 25-cv-2155, 2025 WL 3123732 (D.D.C. Nov. 7, 2025), the District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a False Claims Act (FCA) retaliation complaint on the basis that the plaintiff’s allegations that he was fired after blowing the whistle on purported illegally discriminatory use of federal funding was not sufficient to support his FCA claim. This case appears to be one of the first filed, and subsequently dismissed, following Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s announcement of the creation of the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative on May 19, 2025, which “strongly encourages” private individuals to file lawsuits under the FCA relating to purportedly discriminatory and illegal use of federal funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in violation of Executive Order 14173, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity (Jan. 21, 2025). In this case, the court dismissed the FCA retaliation claim and rejected the argument that an organization could violate the FCA merely by “engaging in discriminatory conduct while conducting a federally funded study.” The analysis in Thornton could be a sign of how forthcoming arguments of retaliation based on reporting allegedly fraudulent DEI activity will be analyzed in the future.
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Client Alert | 6 min read | 11.19.25
